I was just wondering if any of you knew anything to make this process go as smoothly and quickly as possible. Someone told me I had to drain the Radiator and remove all the hoses, how true is this? Any helpful hints are appreciated.
Kevin.

 

bump......

 

I would recomend that you get a Haynes manual if you don't already have a manual. I would also recomend that you get a quality alternator as it is a pain in the a$$ to replace the alt on the Maxima. I got one with a lifetime warranty and have to replace it twice in the last 3 years. Also make sure they test the new/rebuilt alt prior to leaving the store. I just put a rebuilt in my wifes truck as couple of weeks ago and the new alt was bad so I had to do the job twice.

Off the top of my head...
Raise the car and support on jack stands. The alternator comes out of the bottom.

I don't think you need to drain the radiator. You will need to remove the top radiator hose from the radiator and catch this coolant (shouldn't be too much). You then need to remove the fans. The wiring plugs for the fans are located on the fan shrouds.

Next have some heavy string handy... you need to remove the bolts holding the A/C compressor and move the compressor out of the way. Use the string to support the compressor and don't let it hang on the A/C hoses unless you want a lot of extra cost/work.

Then release the tension on the belt using the tension adjuster (look down from the top and you'll see it), remove the alternator bolts (one of the bolts hosds some small bracket take note of how it is connected), then remove the alt.

Reverse to install.

 

Thanks man. I got the manual but I wasn't sure if there was an easier way.(sometimes they do things the hard way) I got everything done, but I couldn't get the belt off. Its like the tensioner is stuck. I loosen it all the way and there is still the same amount of tension. I guess i'm kind of stuck.

 

Make sure you loosen the bolt on the tensioner pulley (on front of pulley). Then crank the bolt facing up to loosen. Don't forget to tighten the bolt on the front of the pulley after you set the tension.

 

I was unaware that I needed to loosen that bolt. I'll go out and try that tomorrow and see how it goes. Thanks for your help, since you're the only one that bothered to reply. I really appreciate it