Howdy.

So I recently hit a bump in my supercharger project... I was driving home one night and OH NO... I got these dreaded lights...



Being the man I am, I didn't want to jump to the conclusion of a failed brake booster. Good thing I didn't! I went to to AutoZone and had my alternator and battery checked as these often cause issues when they fail. Low and behold, alternator has failed. Sad day. Well I decided to go ahead and rip in to it. Since I always see people say they have alternators fail and they took it to the stealership or joe blow mechanic, I decided to do a howto. (Come on, get your hands dirty! And save money ) I've never changed the alternator on this car so if you notice things out of order, just ignore it, I'm try to walk through the quickest way.

Things you will need:
10mm deep and shallow throat
12mm deep and shallow throat
14mm deep and shallow throat
17mm shallow throat
Screwdriver
Breaker bar
Pliers

So I don't exactly remember when I used a deep/shallow or what size things were but everything aside from the powersteering pump was a 10, 12, or 14.

Step 0:
DISCONNECT YOUR BATTERY!!!!!!!!!!! No, really. I didn't once and I welded my wrench to a ground strap... We all forget, but here is your reminder. DISCONNECT THAT HOE!

Step 1:
Start by removing all the intake stuff up to the throttle body. Should be 10mm for all the bolts you'll be removing. Remove respective vacuum hoses.


Step 2:
Get on the ground and remove the bolts holding the belly pan on. Hate these dang things... It should slide out like this.


Step 3:
Using a 14mm or 12mm (don't remember) put a wrench on the accessory belt tensioner and twist it to the left to loosen the belt. Slip it off your nearest pulley, whatever is easiest. Remove the belt.


Step 4:
Remove the upper radiator hose. Just use a pair of pliers to pinch the clip in, slide it back, and pop it off the motor.


Step 5:
So some genius decided to wedge the alternator behind the P/S pulley... No big! Put a screwdriver in the pulley to wedge it. Then use a 17mm socket to bust it the nut loose. It may take some strength. One the nut is off, give it one rap with a rubber mallet, end of a screwdriver, your heel, skull, etc. Should just pull off.



Step 6:
Here's the fun part. Taking junk off. Start by removing the upper and lower bolts in the alternator. There are only two. I believe its a 14mm. A breaker bar will benefit you here. Do not try to remove the alternator at this point, just remove the bolts.


Step 7:
Now remove the two upper and ONE lower bolt on the belt tensioner. The two top bolts are obvious. On the bottom, you will see two adjacent bolts that look like they both could go to the tensioner. Well guess what, only one does. Of the two lower bolts you see, remove the UPPER one. It should have NO silicone on it. If yours has silicone, PUT IT BACK. With new silicone of course.... Again, do not attempt to remove the tensioner at this point.


Step 8:
Remove the little plastic cover above the tensioner, there are only two bolts on it. I have no pic for this, but if you're confused on bolt location, scroll to the end to see how everything is laid out.

Step 9:
Remove the passenger side cam pulley cover. There are only 4 (maybe 3) 10mm perimeter bolts. Then there is one 10mm nut on the front. Watch out for this little guy. I couldn't find him at first.


Step 10:
Now with everything out of the way, your belt tensioner should be able to slide right out. So slide that sucker out.



Here is what the tensioner looks like.


Step 11:
Now gently slide the alternator forward. If it will not move or move EASILY, crawl under the car and remove the two plastic wire loop clips. If you have the factory alternator, there will be two wire loops clipped to it. I used a knife to remove one clip, but the other I simply cut off. Once the alternator is free to slide forward, use a 14mm wrench to remove the power cable. You will have to slide back the rubber weather protector.


Step 12:
Don't go tugging on your alternator yet. Pull it forward a tiny bit more. There is a rubber weather seal plugged in to the back. Slide its rubber seal back. Pinch the connector like you did your MAF connector and pull it out. Easy as pie.


Step 13:
Jimmy that alternator out!

Here is how everything is laid out, you can clearly see the bolt locations.


Installation is reverse of removal! Shabam. Let me know if anyone has any questions.

Kyle

 

Great job man!!
Thx for takin the time to do that!! (even though i have a 300)

 

How did they check the alternator?

 

The 2jzge, soooooooooo much easier to do. Pretty much like 3 bolts and its off, easy access under the car too!

Thanks for the write up hopefully I will never have to do this in my life.

 

the problems I found when removing the alternator on a gs430.

- leave the belt on first. you need to remove the p/s pulley, leave the belt on to create friction. as like everyone, there is room in the holes of the pulley to wedge something in to "lock" it while you try to untighten the pulley nut.
- spray down the nut with some wd40 or something. then spray it down again when the nut is off, so that the pulley can be removed off its threaded short spindle.
- jack up the car. the plastic clips that hold the wires in place are much easier to reach from under the car. once you remove the splash guard, you will see a couple of plastic clips that hold the wire harness next to hug the alternator.
- remove ground terminal first.
- unbolt alternator, slide forward so that you can reach the harness plug behind the alternator. plugs in with a clip similar to the maf sensor.
- pull alternator more forward, and twist to access the positive terminal. you need to twist the alternator to get a socket wrench in there.

I decided to remove the alternator from underneath. not enough room to slide upward because I decided to leave my upper rad hose on and my tensioner on.
- wedge it and slide out between the p/s hard lines (I think they are for the p.s) and the tranny hard lines. takes a bit of wiggle room.

anyhow, had to do my alternator. had it tested at work, not enough amps even while at 2000rpm. it was only showing about 70-80amps at that engine load.

gonna see if they can whined it up to give more amps, otherwise im looking at a new alternator.

 

alternator came back, I think they said they got it up to around 120amps max as the stock alternator is apparently "beefy" enough already, and do to lack of space, that's all they could squeeze into it.

so while attempting to put back into car, found a much easier way to make for more room. drop the sway bar. unbolt it from the bushings, and even get away with just unbolting from the passenger side. this will clear enough room to get the alternator back in place from underneath the car. (assuming you were working on jack stands like myself)

so far so good, gonna see how she runs for today on my 30min drive to work.