355 Alternator bolt removal?!?! HELP!

God i remember when i had the same kind of problem. It was the long bolt at the bottom, the nut came of ok but the allen bolt was stuck fast. No matter how much heat i used with a torch, penetrating oil, large mallets. And no matter how long the bar on the end of the Allen key. It was an absolute ***** to budge. It never turned a single mm in the two days of trying. I even tried an impact gun with an Allen key attachment.
My case was the classic worst case scenario. In the end i had to cut a slot into the alloy tube that the bolt went into to knock it out. Yes the tube is part of the sump casting but i had absolutely no choice.
My sympathies are with you and i hope yours will not be as bad as mine was.

 

Remind me NOT to buy your 355!

 

If you can't get it out not to worry. You should be able to remove all the parts and rebuild it with the alternator in-stu. Now I didn't do it that way, but I do remember one of the guys rebuilding his alternator still in place. So give that a whirl and see how it goes.

 

Yes, "JH355" and I have done ours in place as well, no problem.

 

I knew one of you guys had done it that way, but just couldn't remember. And now we know.

 

Just re-did my alt using Ernie's "how-to" guide this past week. (Thanks Ernie!) I also did mine in-situ because I just knew it would snowball into some bigger project if I was to try pulling the alt first. My advice: if you don't already have one, go straight to the hardware store and first purchase a $2 90 degree phillips head screwdriver. I took the back cover off my alt-- easy. But removing the diode pack on the bottom of the alt was a MASSIVE pain in the a$$ because of the screws on the right and left sides. The screws on the bottom were easy. I used a phillips bit and a socket set as much as possible, but had to resort to the bit and an open wrench for the sides due to the tight clearances. Took a while and a lot of cussing. Because I had to wait a bit for the UPS parts, before it all went back together, I bought the 90 degree phillips, and putting it all back together was a breeze. Should have done that in the first place! Car running great now, no issues. Glad I saved $$$ on this diy project.

Good luck with your alt rebuild.

Thanks again, Ernie, for figuring this out for all our benefit, and taking the time to share it with the rest of us.

John

 

Fantastic work John!

 

Hey no worries John, glad I could help.

But I can't take the credit for finding the parts. That credit goes to the shop that jm3 used. Those are the guys that did the homework on the parts, I just made a tread on how to swap the parts out. But I know what you mean, and thanks for the pat on the back. I'm glad the tread continues to help out a lot of owners.

And

Now your tip of using a 90º philips will help out the next guy tackling the job. It's a team effort, and any little tip that can be added helps us all out. So thank YOU for your addition.

 

Sorry I missed the thanks to jm3 also. Thanks also for the encouragement PAP. I actually had a little fun along the way with this one. Maybe gonna try to do more of my own work (for the ancillary stuff like this or brake pads, fans, etc) in the future, now that I have gotten over my fear of jacking up my car and taking parts off, etc.

Thanks again guys!

John

 

Sorry. Forgot to add this to the above...

How long have any of you guys had the above mentioned parts on your 348/355? Just wondering how much longer these parts will keep the alternator actually charging the battery. Seems like the alt upgrade thread has been going for awhile. Anyone have these parts fail?

John

 

Excellent John! You are most welcome my friend!

Now that you have built up the courage to work on your Ferrari, it wont be long before you are pulling your engine out to do the major cam belt service!

Happy wrenching!

 

Good point John. I have a Chapman rachet that accepts screwdriver bits, works great in tight spots: http://www.chapmanmfg.com/

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?productnumber=510765

Works great on pistols too!