I thought I’d write up my experience replacing my alternator as it was an extremely challenging job and there are some tips that I didn’t find in my other searches.
Anyone who can do this job in under 5 hrs has a lot of mechanical experience. I do the majority of work on my vehicles and I really struggled with this – just due to how tight the space is to work in. This is not an exhaustive DIY but, combined with the other write ups and video’s out there should give someone a pretty good idea.
The best/other videos and write-ups are here:
Tools & Supplies
Lots of sockets, ratchets, extensions, swivels etc. A swivel head 3/8” ratchet is essential
Pneumatic ratchet (or battery)
Torque wrench
Impact gun
Metric wrench set
Pry bar (12” or so)
4 or 5mm allen key
Red Loctite
New serpentine belt if yours is old
Steps:
Disconnect battery
Jack truck up both sides
Remove passenger wheel
Remove passenger side skirting at the front to access engine compartment
Remove skid plate
Remove sway bar bolts (17mm) that bolt it to the frame – it will just swivel down. My bolts were rusted in so I had to spray copious amounts of penetrating oil on them and run them in an out a number of times to get them to come out. If you can spray them with penetrating oil the night before that would be best. There are holes in the frame to spray them with.
Drain radiator and remove coolant hose infront of power steering pump and alternator. I didn’t do this but the hose really restricts things so it would have sped things up dramatically.
Disconnect the wiring to the power steering pump that is right behind the skirting. You need this space as open as it can be.
Remove the serpentine belt – 14mm bolt on the tensioner and rotate it CCW I think. Lock it into place with a 3 or 4mm allen key.
Remove power steering pump. There are two 14mm bolts that hold it on. You have to access the bolts from the wheel well through the holes in the pulley. One bolt you can see and it is at 12 o’clock (from the front of the truck). This is the long bolt. Start with a ratchet and as soon as its loose switch to a pneumatic or electric ratchet as you can only get 3 clicks or so with a manual ratchet.
The other shorter bolt is in the 3 o’clock position and is blind. Same thing here as it is even harder to get at.
Pry out power steering pump and bungy it up to something higher up in the engine.
Remove the clip for the main wiring harness at the bottom of the engine and remove the connector for the oil pressure sensor.
Remove the wiring on the alternator.
Start removing the bolts and nut on the alternator. The top ones are easy to get to and you can use an impact with a long extension coming from the top.
The bottom bolts are a real challenge to get to. Remove the bracket holding the hardlines to the alternator. 12mm bolt. The hard lines will move enough to get a socket on the front. The rear bolt is a real PIA. I ended up using a double wrench to get enough torque on it to crack it. If you have everything removed you can get to it with a ratchet and a swivel from in the passenger wheel well. I found this out putting it back on. I am not sure if you could get enough torque on the bolt with a swivel to break it free.
Pry the alternator off towards the passenger wheel. Watch for the sleeves that will fall out from the bottom bolts. I only had a sleeve on the front one.
Take the alternator out the bottom. Some guys take it out the passenger wheel well but I tried and could get it.
Put the new alternator in the reverse that it came out. Make sure the sleeves are in. Torque all 14mm bolts to 32 ft*lbs. Attach electrical.
Before you put your power steering pump back on, push out the rear bushing, otherwise it will be too tight. I didn’t have a hammer that would fit in the space so I improvised by taking the small 14mm alternator bolt, threading it into the bushing a ways and then putting a shim behind the bolt and backing the bolt out against the shim (which needs to hit the other ear of the PS pump frame). I used a 3/8” drive by ¼” socket for a shim which worked perfect.
Put the power steering pump in and torque it up. Connect all electrical and reinstall skirt. Reinstall passenger tire.
Put serpentine belt back on following the diagram. Unlock tensioner.
Put coolant hose back on if you took it off and refill rad with coolant.
Install sway bar – use red Loctite and torque to 51 ft*lbs. You can put the front bolts in first and then swivel the sway bar up. Put rear bolts in and tighten.
Reinstall skid plate
Reconnect battery
Start truck. Note that, depending on how dirty your MAF sensor is, you may have very low RPM’s (mine were ~400) which isn’t fast enough for your alternator to produce proper voltage. Your ECM will calibrate itself in a short period and will increase the RPM’s. I cleaned my MAF sensor which fixed that problem.
All told I was into it for probably 12 hours. Putting it back together went considerably quicker but that was still 3.5hrs or so.
Anyone who can do this job in under 5 hrs has a lot of mechanical experience. I do the majority of work on my vehicles and I really struggled with this – just due to how tight the space is to work in. This is not an exhaustive DIY but, combined with the other write ups and video’s out there should give someone a pretty good idea.
The best/other videos and write-ups are here:
Tools & Supplies
Lots of sockets, ratchets, extensions, swivels etc. A swivel head 3/8” ratchet is essential
Pneumatic ratchet (or battery)
Torque wrench
Impact gun
Metric wrench set
Pry bar (12” or so)
4 or 5mm allen key
Red Loctite
New serpentine belt if yours is old
Steps:
Disconnect battery
Jack truck up both sides
Remove passenger wheel
Remove passenger side skirting at the front to access engine compartment
Remove skid plate
Remove sway bar bolts (17mm) that bolt it to the frame – it will just swivel down. My bolts were rusted in so I had to spray copious amounts of penetrating oil on them and run them in an out a number of times to get them to come out. If you can spray them with penetrating oil the night before that would be best. There are holes in the frame to spray them with.
Drain radiator and remove coolant hose infront of power steering pump and alternator. I didn’t do this but the hose really restricts things so it would have sped things up dramatically.
Disconnect the wiring to the power steering pump that is right behind the skirting. You need this space as open as it can be.
Remove the serpentine belt – 14mm bolt on the tensioner and rotate it CCW I think. Lock it into place with a 3 or 4mm allen key.
Remove power steering pump. There are two 14mm bolts that hold it on. You have to access the bolts from the wheel well through the holes in the pulley. One bolt you can see and it is at 12 o’clock (from the front of the truck). This is the long bolt. Start with a ratchet and as soon as its loose switch to a pneumatic or electric ratchet as you can only get 3 clicks or so with a manual ratchet.
The other shorter bolt is in the 3 o’clock position and is blind. Same thing here as it is even harder to get at.
Pry out power steering pump and bungy it up to something higher up in the engine.
Remove the clip for the main wiring harness at the bottom of the engine and remove the connector for the oil pressure sensor.
Remove the wiring on the alternator.
Start removing the bolts and nut on the alternator. The top ones are easy to get to and you can use an impact with a long extension coming from the top.
The bottom bolts are a real challenge to get to. Remove the bracket holding the hardlines to the alternator. 12mm bolt. The hard lines will move enough to get a socket on the front. The rear bolt is a real PIA. I ended up using a double wrench to get enough torque on it to crack it. If you have everything removed you can get to it with a ratchet and a swivel from in the passenger wheel well. I found this out putting it back on. I am not sure if you could get enough torque on the bolt with a swivel to break it free.
Pry the alternator off towards the passenger wheel. Watch for the sleeves that will fall out from the bottom bolts. I only had a sleeve on the front one.
Take the alternator out the bottom. Some guys take it out the passenger wheel well but I tried and could get it.
Put the new alternator in the reverse that it came out. Make sure the sleeves are in. Torque all 14mm bolts to 32 ft*lbs. Attach electrical.
Before you put your power steering pump back on, push out the rear bushing, otherwise it will be too tight. I didn’t have a hammer that would fit in the space so I improvised by taking the small 14mm alternator bolt, threading it into the bushing a ways and then putting a shim behind the bolt and backing the bolt out against the shim (which needs to hit the other ear of the PS pump frame). I used a 3/8” drive by ¼” socket for a shim which worked perfect.
Put the power steering pump in and torque it up. Connect all electrical and reinstall skirt. Reinstall passenger tire.
Put serpentine belt back on following the diagram. Unlock tensioner.
Put coolant hose back on if you took it off and refill rad with coolant.
Install sway bar – use red Loctite and torque to 51 ft*lbs. You can put the front bolts in first and then swivel the sway bar up. Put rear bolts in and tighten.
Reinstall skid plate
Reconnect battery
Start truck. Note that, depending on how dirty your MAF sensor is, you may have very low RPM’s (mine were ~400) which isn’t fast enough for your alternator to produce proper voltage. Your ECM will calibrate itself in a short period and will increase the RPM’s. I cleaned my MAF sensor which fixed that problem.
All told I was into it for probably 12 hours. Putting it back together went considerably quicker but that was still 3.5hrs or so.