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I have perused the previous postings, and have found some good advice on an alternator change out. However the advice is seemingly limited to the 98-02 models.
Can anyone shed some light on the differences under the hood related to that passenger-front area, in terms of differences? Is an 03 alternator change as simple as on a 98 -02?
Based on what I am reading the job is not too terribly difficult and can be attacked from the bottom.
I am traveling (8 hrs and 1 state from home) and using my dad's tools. Luckily I discovered the problem at the July 4 parade and not out in the middle of nowhere west Texas!
Any tips or advice is appreciated.
This is the step by step I have found:
replaced my alternator tonight - it was really easy - a two banana job. I was surprised at how easy it was to do. I read the FSM before hand and it had a bunch of extra steps that were not necessary. The FSM tells you to drain the coolant and move the hose going into the bottom of the radiator - I found this not necessary. It also suggests to remove the pulley from the power steering pump - also not necessary.
So here were my steps.
First - remove the battery cables. You don't want to shock the crap out of your self or weld your wrench to the side of the engine block.
Remove skid plates.
Take 14 mm wrench and place on pulley tensioner - pull towards passenger side to remove tension on the serpentine belt - slip the belt off.
Remove two 14 mm bolts on top and bottom of alternator - top is a nut - bottom is a bolt.
Remove two clips on side of alternator - they are simply holding the electrical line in place and out of the way of the serpentine belt. Pinch the back of the clips and push them out of the alternator clip.
This should allow you to wiggle the alternator forward and off the mounting bolt on top. Carefully push the coolant lines out of the way to gain access to the two connectors on the back.
Carefully remove the grey plastic cover over a 10mm bolt. Take a small pocket screwdriver and twist the cap loose then it slides off - exposing the 10mm bolt. Remove bolt and cable attached underneath bolt.
This should now allow you to turn the alternator around to access the plug on the back side or cabin side of the alternator. It has a tab on the top side - press the tab in and wiggle the connector side to side - carefully backing the cable out of the alternator. This took a while for me to do - it was full of dirt around the edges and took some patience to work it out without damaging the cables.
Once free - carefully work the alternator down and out the bottom of the engine bay.
Repeat steps backwards to get it back in.
