i have a few cuts on my hands to prove it... hehehehehe..
anyways, shortly after installing the new alternator (man are they expensive for the MAX) I turned on my headlights and they seem to be much brighter than i remember.... does anyone know if the charging system could directly effect this? also, does the alternator die gradually, or spontaneously and in a bunch of flames like mine did! I sware that this simple change has rejuvinated my car.... BTW... i also replaced my serpentine (sp?) belt while i was at it...

Thanks,
Randy

 

Alternators die like people do... some die slowly, some die in one brief bright flash.

Overly-bright headlights could be a sign of a malfunctioning voltage regulator. The regulator is an internal component of the alternator. Measure the voltage across your battery terminals with the engine running. Rev the engine from idle to 3K rpm and back a few times. If your reading exceeds 15 volts, the regualtor is suspect. See Haynes, page 5-10,11.

How long did the job take? Was there any particular snag? Was there any tool which you found especially helpful?

 

randy, i liked this post. i just thought it was funny (not sarcastic at all, i'm being honest here) that you correctly spelled one word you thought might be wrong, while misspelling others, which are spelled: "affect," "swear" and "rejuvenated." no offense intended WHATSOEVER. it was just a humorous coincidence.

 

I had the same impression.

I admire people who consistently use correct grammar and spelling. However, I always try to look beyond the spelling and attempt to understand the message.

The largest category of error I notice on this forum is homonyms, words that sound alike but differ in spelling. There/their/they're.

On a forum we can't see the other fellow, and often don't know his real name. Let's bear in mind that many of our Maxima.Org members learned English as a second language, and may still be climbing that learning curve.

 

thanks Daniel... i'll definitely try the voltage trick to see if there's a difference... i was just curious... by the way, the help / advise that you gave me was really great!

as far as the disassemble / install... seeing that it was my first time and we were in no apparent hurry (i had two friends helping me), it probably took about 3hrs to take the alternator out initially... by the time we took off the splash guards, air intake, fan assembly, moved the a/c compressor....etc. it would have taken less time, but we had issues with the idler pulley (about 1hr of issues)... i didn't realize that you had to loosen not only the pulley wheel itself AND that bolt which states "retighten after replacing belt" to get the serpentine belt off... doh!.... that was a nice little snag... other than that, i was using a socket set that had three different size extentions... THAT WAS VERY "KEY" for getting into the tough to reach spaces.... a necessity for this job in my book! after that... it was all about being patient for the new part to come in... last night's install went really smoothly (about 1.5hrs)... i would say the about the only small snag that we had, was initially remounting the alternator.. man is it a snug fit lining up the the bottom back holes of the alternator so that we could replace the long bolt in the back of the alternator... other than that.. it was about 45mins of putting everything back together.... all the sensors (man are they everywhere), and making sure all the parts were back where they were suppose to be (i took good notes while we were disassembling everything)

other than that... i feel EXTREMELY confident that i could do it again...NO PROBLEM... it's definitely not a walk in the park.. but something that with a little determination can be accomplished...

sorry for the length...
and thanks again Daniel.. appreciated as always!!

-Randy

 

sorry guys... i guess i was in a hurry!! oops!!
regardless... i'm at work and wanted to get a quick post in between a few "important" projects that i'm working on... in all reality... i guess i'm just slacking! plus... i somewhat don't feel "all there" today.. must be that alternator gave me a shock last night or something!!