With all due respect to my Father, whom I love, in the last couple of days, I have come close to cursing the name of every engineer ever born.
Who, but an automotive sadist would place an alternator in a location where the proper service procedure for removing it involves removing two engine mounts and rotating the engine forward? Then, when the alternator is loose and it is inevitably dropped behind the engine, structures are designed to allow the engine to fit in a position, from which it cannot be removed.
More tools is always a perk of a DIY project. I now have two "stubby" 15mm wrenches (necessary to remove the alternator), an open end and a box end. Of course, yesterday morning I had three standard sized 15 mm wrenches, but thanks to my trusty Sawzall, I now have two standard sized and two stubbies.
The background of this mechanical trial is an engine noise in our minivan which has grown in intensity for the last several months. It was most definitely a "spinning" noise related to engine driven accessories...which I was sure I diagnosed properly....several times. I used the old trick of placing a long piece of wood on several of the components, then putting the other end next to my ear to see where the sound is most intense. Unfortunately, all of the accesories are bolted to brackets that are bolted to each other...anyway....
First I replaced the water pump. Job went well and I took the opportunity to flush the cooling system.....noise was still there. Oh well.
I pressed on. I then replaced the belt tensioner, one of the few cleverly designed pieces, installed with a single bolt. However, the noise was still there.
I employed new diagnostic procedures. I started spraying WD-40 on the various pulleys with the engine running thinking that if I could get the belt to slip on the offending pulley, it would interrupt the sound and that would be it. Great idea....IN THEORY.
No luck. Yesterday, I thought I had solved it. The sound was getting louder and louder. It was coming right from the area of the power steering pump. You guessed it- I replaced the power steering pump. That job took a couple of hours. Of course, the sound was still there. With an attitude recalling the hubris of one Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer as he rode confidently towards Little Bighorn, I refused to acknowledge the possibility of defeat.
I had heard the legend of the Chevrolet Venture alternator replacement job; a task undertaken by only the highly skilled or highly foolish. As my introductory comments illustrate, I am among the latter, not the former. In any event, I did indeed rotate the engine forward...and after several hours attempting to remedy problems I, myself, had caused (though the General Motors engineers have their part in this debacle), I finally removed the alternator.
Of course, this also involved the removal of windshield wiper linkages (naturally, right?)....and of course the bolt holding the main bracket on snapped off. You know that a maintenance project is on track when the evening ends with a tap and die set. But I digress.
In any event, after checking three auto parts stores in Portage (in person), I found the proper alternator in Valparaiso. Returning home at 6:30 pm, the project was buttoned up by 9:30. Why all that time? It had something to do with the aforementioned tap and die project, but a leftover bolt that needed a home was the main culprit. As anyone could predict, at this point, it fit into the alternator bracket....in back of the alternator....and could not be installed with the alternator in place...which I had already bolted down.
It's already too late for this, but long story short- the noise was still there.
Today, and I could have sworn it was not coming from there, but an idler pulley...and $18 idler pulley....the least expensive item I could have replaced....an idler pulley..a 10 minute job (other than my 26th trip to the auto parts store). The noise is gone....but I still need to bleed the power steering system of air....because of the power steering pump I apparently did not need.
So to recap, I replaced a water pump, belt tensioner, alternator and power steering pump unnecessarily. I will not recount the monetary cost....because I don't want to think about it. The emotional cost is painful enough.
I've decided to call it "preventative maintenance".
Who, but an automotive sadist would place an alternator in a location where the proper service procedure for removing it involves removing two engine mounts and rotating the engine forward? Then, when the alternator is loose and it is inevitably dropped behind the engine, structures are designed to allow the engine to fit in a position, from which it cannot be removed.
More tools is always a perk of a DIY project. I now have two "stubby" 15mm wrenches (necessary to remove the alternator), an open end and a box end. Of course, yesterday morning I had three standard sized 15 mm wrenches, but thanks to my trusty Sawzall, I now have two standard sized and two stubbies.
The background of this mechanical trial is an engine noise in our minivan which has grown in intensity for the last several months. It was most definitely a "spinning" noise related to engine driven accessories...which I was sure I diagnosed properly....several times. I used the old trick of placing a long piece of wood on several of the components, then putting the other end next to my ear to see where the sound is most intense. Unfortunately, all of the accesories are bolted to brackets that are bolted to each other...anyway....
First I replaced the water pump. Job went well and I took the opportunity to flush the cooling system.....noise was still there. Oh well.
I pressed on. I then replaced the belt tensioner, one of the few cleverly designed pieces, installed with a single bolt. However, the noise was still there.
I employed new diagnostic procedures. I started spraying WD-40 on the various pulleys with the engine running thinking that if I could get the belt to slip on the offending pulley, it would interrupt the sound and that would be it. Great idea....IN THEORY.
No luck. Yesterday, I thought I had solved it. The sound was getting louder and louder. It was coming right from the area of the power steering pump. You guessed it- I replaced the power steering pump. That job took a couple of hours. Of course, the sound was still there. With an attitude recalling the hubris of one Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer as he rode confidently towards Little Bighorn, I refused to acknowledge the possibility of defeat.
I had heard the legend of the Chevrolet Venture alternator replacement job; a task undertaken by only the highly skilled or highly foolish. As my introductory comments illustrate, I am among the latter, not the former. In any event, I did indeed rotate the engine forward...and after several hours attempting to remedy problems I, myself, had caused (though the General Motors engineers have their part in this debacle), I finally removed the alternator.
Of course, this also involved the removal of windshield wiper linkages (naturally, right?)....and of course the bolt holding the main bracket on snapped off. You know that a maintenance project is on track when the evening ends with a tap and die set. But I digress.
In any event, after checking three auto parts stores in Portage (in person), I found the proper alternator in Valparaiso. Returning home at 6:30 pm, the project was buttoned up by 9:30. Why all that time? It had something to do with the aforementioned tap and die project, but a leftover bolt that needed a home was the main culprit. As anyone could predict, at this point, it fit into the alternator bracket....in back of the alternator....and could not be installed with the alternator in place...which I had already bolted down.
It's already too late for this, but long story short- the noise was still there.
Today, and I could have sworn it was not coming from there, but an idler pulley...and $18 idler pulley....the least expensive item I could have replaced....an idler pulley..a 10 minute job (other than my 26th trip to the auto parts store). The noise is gone....but I still need to bleed the power steering system of air....because of the power steering pump I apparently did not need.
So to recap, I replaced a water pump, belt tensioner, alternator and power steering pump unnecessarily. I will not recount the monetary cost....because I don't want to think about it. The emotional cost is painful enough.
I've decided to call it "preventative maintenance".
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