MB needs an Alternator...

This is one of those "when it rains - it pours" scenarios.  I have finally finished the lower control arm install; which ended up being a new front strut install even though I tried to avoid needing to install a new strut....  I'm going to repeat a little from the previous post, the parts related to the alternator anyways.

December 2 - A new issue presents itself

Anyways - the car was finally standing on it's own.  The nose of the car was finally lifted off the ground.  The car looked proud to hold that star emblem once more (although I'll admit she is quite dirty from sitting for about a month too).  All this and the battery died on me.  I guess sitting for a month does the battery no favors.  The car was showing about 8.5V at the time I shut it down after the strut install.

The battery was removed and charged at AutoZone.  They said it was still good - just needed to be charged. I reinstalled it - here are the voltage readings I got:
Car off: 12.5V
Car on, engine off: 12.3V
Engine on: 12.1V
After a short drive, engine still on: 11.9V

Clearly the voltages are too low.  A healthy car should be reading about 13.5V to about 14.5V when the engine is on, but in the readings above, the engine was showing less voltage.

December 4 - Making a plan

As best as I can figure - the low voltage is as simple as just a bad alternator on this car.  I'm trying to decide how to proceed on this issue.  My current thought is to remove the old one first.  Order a re-manufactured alternator from O'Reilly's.  My hope is that with my old alternator in hand, that I should be able to verify that all the connectors are the same before I finalize the purchase.  Then install the new alternator.  Before I start the car - I plan to remove the battery and charge it up fully before I attempt to start the car.  Main benefit here is the limited lifetime warranty from a brick and mortar location.  If the alternator acts up in the future I could swap it out without needing to open my wallet a second time.  The downside is this is probably the more expensive option.  I may just buy it anyways even before removing the old one.

The other idea is to take the alternator to someone who can rebuild it.  One of my co-workers knows of an "old guy" who typically does this kind of work in a day.  I like this plan but I'm not sure the "old guy" is still in business.

Anyways - I'll update as I make progress.

December 5 - changing plans

Well, I thought I'd just go ahead and get a re-manufactured alternator from O'Reilly's.  While I was there I went ahead and got a new serpentine belt.

December 13 - getting the old alternator out

I really haven't had much of a chance to get working on this issue till today.  Mainly cause the family decided we would buy a playground and I pretty much was the only one working through getting it all put together.

Anyways - I started digging into the car.  I went ahead and turned the car around.  I figured if I'm working in the engine bay that I might as well back the car against the fence to give me all the room I would need.

Took out the battery, bought it into the house and put it into a few boxes and placed a trickle charger on it.

Started digging into the engine.  Took the front engine cover off, and then the passenger side air intake.  Removed the tension on the belt and removed it from the alternator pulley.  

From there I had to remove the radiator overflow tank - not exactly remove but loosen it so I could move the hoses to the side.  From there I could remove the 2 bolts holding the alternator in place.  I was then able to loosen it from the mounts and twist it upside-down.  I don't know if the cable was already broken or brittle, but I did manage to break one of the connections.  I was also able to remove the main cable that is screwed on. 

It took a little wrestling, but I was able to remove the alternator.  I think this is as far as I can get today - because the cable that broke needs to be repaired somehow first.

December 14 - testing the old alternator

Before I gave the old alternator away for just the core charge back to O'Reilly's; I thought I'd get it tested just to make sure it really is bad.

This morning after dropping the kids off at school, I stopped by my local Auto Zone and had them test it.  Here are the results:

It was tested twice - and both tests say the alternator is good.  I'm starting to think that little cable was broken or on it's last leg and somehow it just failed while doing the last repair.  I think I'll still put the new alternator in, but now I'm starting to wonder if something else may be amiss.

December 15 - fixing stuff I can fix outside of the car

Tonight I was able to work on the broken voltage regulator connection.  I thought I'd extend the cable a little with a new connection.  I used an old DS2 bulb connector that I feel I'll never need.  Cut the both cables of it and figured I'd try to connect one end to the connector and the other to the broken cable in the car's engine bay.

Anyways - there was just enough cable left to make a decent mechanical connection.

Then I added a bunch of solder to keep it well connected.

Finished it off with some shrink wrap.  

I am happy with this part of the repair.  I did double check and ensure there was a good continuity in the connection thus far.  I think it will work out well.

December 16 - Resolution

Started out as a cold day today.  Yesterday I had purchased a real battery maintainer/charger.  I put it on the battery just to ensure I had a good charge on it when I got the alternator install completed.

Had to take care of the kids for a while, was free to finally work on the car at about 11AM.  The weather was comfortable - which was great.

So, I had to start with getting the voltage regulator cable inside the engine bay.  I had to start by exposing some of the copper, I had to tear a little of the cover it had, but was able to get it done.  I made a good mechanical connection too.

Just as I did with the connector part - I did also solder and shrink wrap this part too.

The connection looked a little rough, so I figured better safe than sorry - so I wrapped it in electrical tape and a zip tie.

Then came the fun part - I had to get the alternator back in place.  I could not remember for the life of me how I got it out but finally figured it out.  Pulley up with both holes toward the fender.  It's a tight fit, but if you pull up one of the radiator hoses it will squeeze in.  The picture below also shows the cables connected to the alternator.

 I now realized that I should not have added so much slack to the cable.  It will have to hang somewhere.  Fortunately it does seem there are not moving parts or hot exhaust parts too close to it.

I did manage to get it put back in place.  I did unfortunately also discover that the top bolt was stripped.  I could not fully torque it down.  I doubt it will move out of place, but it isn't completely right either.  I also took this moment to put in a new serpentine belt.  The old one was looking a little glazed and was starting to crack a little.

Went ahead and connected the coolant overflow tank, put it back in place.  I also did a repair to the air intake tube that has been broken in half.  Put the engine cover back in place and looked everything over one more time.  It all looked good.

Went back inside and fetched the battery off the charger.  The charger indicated it had a 100% charge (started at 60% this morning even though I had it on a small trickle charger for days).

Installed the battery into the car and took my base voltage readings (I think it was 12.5V on the installed battery).  It was all looking good so far.  I put my battery tester on the leads and set it to measure the car cranking.  Got in the car and started it up.  Engine fired right up - very happy about that.  I went back to the trunk and saw a voltage reading of 14.45V.  I was very very happy with this!

This is the measurement I had been hoping for.  It showed the new alternator did correct the issue I was having.

I took the car on a short test drive and it was all working as expected.  I'll have to start driving it more soon - I think she is road worthy again at last!