Re: '84 Spider Alternator

["Sokoloff, Jim" <Jim-Sokoloff@xxxxxxxxxx>]

>From: Dan Cogswell <dlcogswe@domain.elided>
>
>A friend has an '84 Alfa Spider that he's asked me to help him change
>the alternator on.  Before I say I can help, I was wondering if anybody
>can give me an idea of difficulties doing this.  I'm most concerned
>about the pulley.  How do you remove that?

Good news: This is about as easy a car as it gets to change an alternator
on. 

Remove the air intake plenum hose, the top of the airbox, the filter, the
bottom of the airbox, and the alternator is right there. Loosen the
adjustment bolts, slide the belt off (don't get grease on it, since you
won't be replacing it, especially if the car has A/C) remove the alternator
physical mounts, turn it pulley side down and remove the electricals. Total
time under 15 minutes to remove, without breaking a real sweat... (Note that
this is a convenient time to do oil/filter change too, since I (and I guess
most people) remove the airbox to do that job as well...)

Installation is reverse of removal (God, I love saying that!). No need to
remove the pulley, as the replacement will come with the pulley mounted. (If
you did need to remove it, use an air-driven impact wrench, which you
probably haven't got, which is why the new ones comes with the pulley on.
:-) )

However, before you replace it (unless you know it's bad), consider cleaning
the ground and sense connections (basically, take apart and clean all the
electrical connections at the alternator and at the battery), and check it
for proper function. Note also that you can often just replace the voltage
regulator/brush assembly (at least once per "real" rebuild) and restore
proper alternator function, rather than sending yours out for rebuild or
exchange. For a couple bucks more, buy the adjustable replacement voltage
regulator (around $20-$25), and adjust it to get 14.2-14.4 at the battery at
2000 RPM.

This is an easy 2-3 hour job the first time you do it, assuming you have a
reasonable assortment of the right sized metric wrenches/sockets, the
knowledge of which end of them to hold, and a place to work. If you've done
oil changes on the car before, it's probably a 1 hour job.

- ---Jim

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