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Date:         Tue, 2 Dec 1997 14:28:14 -0500
Reply-To:     Peter Eaton <Peter_Eaton@ZD.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon mailing list <Vanagon@Gerry.SDSC.EDU>
From:         Peter Eaton <Peter_Eaton@ZD.COM>
Subject:      84 GL Alternator Bracket
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

This piece 'o hardware led to such a fun Saturday afternoon.....

I notice the belt is squealing, so at lunchtime I check and find that the nuts are missing from the studs in the block. Oh goody, a project....so I check the Bentley, remove the alternator, give the two half-inch remains of the studs a couple light taps with a hammer and manage to unscrew them with a pair of pliers.

Off to the hardware store for a pair of 8mmx36mmm replacement studs, washers and nuts.

Now we're rollin': Use the pliers to thread the new studs in, put the bracket on, contort the fingers from above to get the washers and nuts on....and then try and figure out how to get a wrench in that little space. No good from above, no good from below.

An hour later (out of breath from cursing the guy who designed this) I took a 6 inch box end wrench, scored it with a hacksaw, clamped it in a vise, and snapped it in half with a hammer. Spent the next two hours leaning over the motor maneuvering the abbreviated wrench into place and tightening the two nuts one-eighth of a turn at a time.

Five minutes to put the alternator back on and I'm back in business.

Two questions: Did I miss an easier way to do this? (I wasn't about to remove the coolant pipe or the exhaust.) And why wasn't that cursed bracket cast as part of the block (or just welded onto it)?

Anyway, just wanted to let the next unfortunate soul know that it can be done without removing anything but the bracket.

Pete


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