wstar's Journal

wstar

Installed NST's overdriven alternator pulley this afternoon/evening. There were a few gotchas to getting the alternator out of the car, but it was a learning experience. I could probably do it in 1/3 the time if I did it again now.

Random notes in case someone googles this later: You really should have an impact wrench on hand for the pulley nut itself, and it's a 24mm nut. Definitely remove radiator overflow tank and cooling fans first like the Service Manual says. Then remove the belt, and then remove the belt tensioner (completely) for easy access to the top front alternator mounting bolt (it's a totally unnecessary pain in the *** if you don't, no idea why the SM doesn't mention that).

Also, if you have an oil cooler installed, odds are very high your oil cooler lines will block the normal path for pulling the removed alternator out of the engine bay from below. You can either drop the front swaybar to let it out, or what I did: spin it around so the pulley is facing the ground and just prop it up on the swaybar + radiator housing and do the nut removal/install while it's hanging there.

Half hour test drive went fine, nothing seems to be coming loose. Volts look like they're a touch better, but the real test will be whether it helps in the long term during those periods where I'm harder on my charging cycle for my tiny battery and underdriven crank pulley.

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