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Alternator DIY - perhaps an easier way? Posted by John Fitzgerald [Email]  (#77)  [Profile/Gallery]
(more from John Fitzgerald) on Thu, 3 Jan 2013 09:12:19
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Working on a 'project car' bought last month: a '98 CSE w/ 184k AND fairly complete mx records from p.o. over past twelve years.
Seeing some voltage drops under load [sort of worst case: night time, headlights on, rear window defroster, heater blasting, wipers ... ok, just holding on at 14.0 and 28 F outside, then: my daughter turns on the psrgr seat heater. Voltage drop to 12.6 whenever heater cycles pads on 'high' - admittedly, quite a stress test. btw, battery load tests ok [prior] and was on a smart charger/maintainer for five days].
Anyway, had the rt ft fender liner out to do the idler, tensioner pulleys and rebuilt the tensioner shock AND had a rebuilt alternator at hand, so ... it's been five years since my last DIY alternator, how bad can this be, right?
After getting the ps pump loose and removing the bolts holding the ps bracket on the engine [yeah, memories of finding the 'blind' bolts below the alternator = fun! laying across the top of the engine, etc], I'm stuck trying to get the ps pump to wiggle far enough out of the way for the alternator to come out. No dice. Didn't recall having to take the ps pump all the way out of the car, so I'm staring at the top of the motor. Ok, lets try going in from the top.
Man, why didn't' I do this years ago. Sure, the Haynes manual and 9000 tech manuals say go through the fender for the alternator ... but they also told me to take off the hood to do the heater core/blower motors on the '86 & '87 9000's and I ignored that, too.
It sounds like lots of stuff, but it all unbolted easily: top dog bone motor mount, the grounding strap, the map pressure stud on the intake manifold, lifted the false firewall gasket to lift the MAP bracket out of the way, then took off the three bolts holding the top motor mount bracket to the strut tower. Lift the ps reservoir & hoses up and to the side. Turned the alternator on it's side, lifted straight up. What a relief, compared to wrestling the ps pump, pulley, etc, and the 'blind bolts' for the ps brakcket to engine. Btw, putting those back on while the alternator was out was one of the few smart things I did at the same time.
As long as everything in back was open, I put a new positive cable on the battery/starter/alt, and cleaned up the battery tray with POR-15. Waiting on parts for a new fuel pump, but today will be a new front main seal and oil pump o-ring. Hoping to get at least six or seven years, maybe a 100k mi from this car - previous owner did keep most of it in good shape, interior just needed some misc ACC light bulbs, etc, and a few decals removed from the glass.
So, this lengthy note is to motivate others to use the 'top down' method for alternators. Hope you can all keep the 9k's running for another decade or more.
I do enjoy using the 9000 BB; don't always have as much time to comment as I did years ago.
Happy New Year to you all.
Sincerely,
John
Burlington, Wisc
'73 96 RHD sold after four years in Middle Barton, Oxfordshire, UK
'80 99 sold after 20 years/192,000mi
'86 9kT sold after 12 years/approx 121,000 mi
'87 9kT sold after 9 years/approx 174,000 mi
'97 CSE given to my son after 8 years @ 245k; he sold it at 254k mi
still driving:
'97 Aero 234,xxx mi
'98 CSE 185,xxx mi 'project car' for winter & for my daughters to drive
and a couple of 'non-Saabs':
'01 Suburban 138,xxx mi
'03 BMW 330 Cic 53,xxx mi
_______________________________________ John Burlington, Wisc '73 96 RHD sold after four years in Middle Barton, Oxfordshire, UK '80 99 bought new, sold after 20 years/192,000mi '86 9kT picked up at Trollhatten, sold after 12 years/approx 121,000 mi '87 9kT sold after 9 years/approx 174,000 mi '94 CSE given to my son after 8 years @ 245k; he sold it at 254k mi '95 Aero 146,xxx mi sold '98 CSE 248,xxx mi gave it away '97 Aero 317,xxx mi my daughter’s school car … gave away [we put 300k mi on it] still driving: '97 CSE 170xxx mi 'project car' for myself and my daughters to drive '07 9-3 2.0T 240xxx '08 9-5 191xxx mi my wife's daily driver and a couple of 'non-Saabs': '01 Suburban 201,xxx mi '03 BMW 330 Cic 84,xxx mi '14 Mercedes E350 103,xxx mi
, Thu, 3 Jan 2013 09:12:19 <-- Viewing This Message, Thu, 3 Jan 2013 18:04:08
, Thu, 3 Jan 2013 09:41:15
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