Today I spent four hours removing an old alternator from a Ford Focus. I do not recommend this type of activity. These cars are designed for people with very small hands, I am not one of those people.
Let me say that I am not a mechanic but I was raised by one and I can turn a wrench. Things that I do not already know how to do are nothing more than learning opportunities. I would also like to give a special shout out to the folks that designed this car. May the fleas of a million mangy mutts infest your armpits!
So after removing the antifreeze reservoir, front passenger side tire, and enlisting my nephews help, we were able to remove the belt from the alternator pulley. This would not have been possible without the extra set of hands. I had to be under the car while the nephew was in charge of removing the belt. You know, since someone decided it would be grand to put the belt tensioner on the bottom of the motor.
Next came the removal of 2 nuts, a bolt, and the 2 studs that bolts were on. Removal of the actual alternator came about after much coaxing andonce again from the underside of the car. All of this was very time consuming due to the very tight clearances not to mention frustrating.
Moving on I decide to check to see if the new alt matches the old alt. Luckily I did this because they were not a match and had I weaved the new alt into place, I would have been far less happy then.
We had ordered the new alt from rockauto and it was our error not theirs. The again who would have guessed that the old alt was a 130 amp beast with a reversed and larger plug than the new one. The is a huge output for a two liter engine. Refer to my previous shout out for that particular stroke of genius on the part of the designers. Since it is apparently too much to ask for the plug ins to be the same.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention this little high entertainment value tidbit. When retrieving the jack from the trunk of the car I discovered something funny. It seems that at some point someone had put a self tapping screw right into the fake spare tire. It held air right up until I pulled that donut out of the trunk since the jack is under the tire. Better to find that out now and not in a flat tire situation. Might as well get another rim and a full size tire. Those miniature spare donut tires have always been a source of irritation for me as well. They are speed limited and are only rated for getting to a tire shop. I always tell people to get a full size spare and rim ASAP when their new to them vehicle has one. Whoever came up with those should be beaten with one. Their existence cannot be justified.
