Alternator pivot bolt - Now What?

The alternator pivot bolt head bottoms out on the dipstick tube before the alternator is clear of the bolt, this the alternator won't slide free of teh bracket

Is this normal? Is my car the only problem child?.

Now, how do I get the alt free of teh bolt? Try and force it? Or?

Thanks,
Doug

 

Sounds like the alternator was installed before the dipstick tube. You can easily unscrew the dipstick tube where it enters the block.

Helmut

 

I have never done that procedure before.

There isn't much room to work, under there.

Is the tube held in with a hollow capture nut of some sort, such that the tube itself doesn't turn? Anyplace else the dipstick tube needs to be unfastened before I go through this?

I would have fired any engineer that worked for me for coming up with **** like this, as the ability to actually machine/make something, and also repair it economically, is important as making sure it works. Unfortunately, there are lot of so called engineers that don't look at the big picture, or don't care.

After I get the alternator out, I will machine a relief in the alternator boss so it clears the bolt, if I can't shorten the bolt enough to make it work with the dipstick tube in place

Thanks,
Doug

 

The tube is like a flared fitting. Loosening the nut frees the tube to turn, but it needs to be removed to take the tube off the car. The nut is 27mm (~1 1/16"), but a wrench will be too long. I found a 8" adjustable wrench just opens enough and is short enough to be able to swing it in the space towards the center of the car.

I just changed my timing belts, so fiddled with most of the same area. I notice that my alternator bolt is positioned so it would remove from the outside. Now, I didn't need to remove the alternator, just loosen it enough to R&R the belt. So getting the nut on the back side with the bolt reversed might be a problem. The parts book shows that the bolt is supposed to be installed from the inside out.

 

We just cut an open end wrench in half and made a special short wrench tool for the nut on the bottom of the tube. We pass it around to whoever needs it here in New England within our group.

Then there is one nut at the top of the tube. Fairly easy to remove to the tube and that should solve your problem.

Birdman

 

Yeah, its a tapered nut that holds the tube in place. It shouldn't be hard to losen the nut, and then you may be able to reach in with your fingers and just undo it, thats how I did it but I don't have the heatshield on the headers. The bolt should go in the other way so that you can remove the alternator without removing the dipstick. BTW there is a small screw that holds the dipstick tube to the belt cover on the top of the cover facing the firewall, you may need to undo that as well.


Helmut

 

Guys I must be missing something. Unless someone was in there and did some cobbed up job reinstalling the alt. there should be no reason to remove the dip stick. On my 77 all of the bolts and bracket come out without removing the dip stick tube or the AC compressor. Unless your 79 has something different the removal is pretty straight forward. The only pain was removing the shield and wires from the rear but with a lift that is a lot simpler now.

 

Steve,

I think the lift issue is the key here...
As I recall, I've never touched the dip stick tube removing the alternator, either.

David

 

I had the same problem. Finally, in frustration I cut the head off the bolt and removed it through the front. I then installed the replacement bolt with the head on the outside (belt side). No problems since.

 

Take the front bracket loose, from the engine block..........

 

The bolt should go in from the front...IIRC, there's a nested washer on the back that the hex nut sinks into......

From the front, it'll hit the gas tank......

Hang in there, brudda it IS tight in there......my alt went bad last month or so.....take the cooling pipe out of there, and get some room to swing!

I shorted the output lead going back, the whole wiring loom burned down........