Replacing alternator in 93 SL1?

How difficult is it to replace the alternator in an 1993 SL1?

When I had my Saturn last in for an oil change and safety
inspection, the dealer recommended that I replace the alternator (probably
5 years old) and battery (probably 4 years old), saying that they were
both showing up as "marginal" in his tests.

The car has 118,000 miles, and is now used as a secondary car,
driven once a week or so. I've had the car since new, and it has always
done very well.

So before giving it away, I was wondering about using it to learn
to do more mechanical things on cars, and an alternator seemed relatively
safe compared to others. Yes, I would do the alternator and battery at
the same time.

Any advice or experience? (Including: You're crazy, don't bother,
not worth it.)

Thanks.

Greg

Gregory Watson


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>How difficult is it to replace the alternator in an 1993 SL1?

You must remove the right front wheel and inner fender plastic. It is really
not that bad after that but you must have some kind of mechanical ability.
Removing some of the fasteners is a matter of feel because they can hardly be
seen from the angle you are working from. Be sure to disconnect the battery
before you begin.

I doubt I would replace the alt until it was defective, not marginal. However I
would replace the battery. If your battery could be on the way out, it could
over work your alt causing them both to go bad at the same time in the new
future.

I have an '92 and the battery seems to only last about 3 years and then I get
trouble. Maybe because of the case around it, I am not sure. This time I bought
an "Interstate" battery instead of a Delco. Maybe it will last longer than 3
years this time.

James

(Gregory Watson) wrote in message >...
> How difficult is it to replace the alternator in an 1993 SL1?
>
Alternator Replacement Procedu

1. Write down all of your radio station presets (optional)
2. Disconnect negative battery cable (most assuredly NOT optional)
5/16" wrench works well
3. Jack up the right front corner of the car
4. Put a jack stand under the car.
5. Remove the right front wheel
6. Remove the two plastic splash shields (you pull the plastic
center pins out of the fasteners to remove).
7. Use a 14 mm wrench to remove tension from the accessory belt
(turn wrench clockwise on the bolt in the center of the idler pulley).
8. Move the belt off of a pulley to remove tension from it.
9. Remove the 10 mm bolt holding the splash shield onto the
alternator
10. Unsnap the splash shield from the alternator.
11. Unbolt the cable running from the alternator to the starter AT
THE STARTER.
12. Carefully pry the clip up from the other alternator connector and
remove it from the alternator. Be careful not to break the clip off
of the connector.
13. Remove the upper alternator bolt (13 mm) from above.
14. Remove the lower alternator bolt (13 mm) from below.
15. Remove alternator down through the wheel well.

You now have the alternator with a 1 ft cable attached. You need to
remove this. The Chilton's manual suggests using a 13 mm wrench that
is only about 60 thousands of an inch thick to hold the stud coming
from the alternator (to prevent it from turning). Such wrenches are
quite difficult to find. I removed the cable from the alternator by
putting two 10 mm nuts on the top of the stud and tightening them
against each other. Then, I used one 10 mm wrench to loosen the nut
holding the cable while using another 10 mm wrench against the bottom
of the two 10 mm nuts that I put at the top.

The bottom line in working without the stud coming out from the
alternator is you don't want to put any torque on it with respect to
the alternator. It is (ahem) not a robust design. When you get this
cable off, put it on the same position on the new alternator and
tighten it similarly (using something to hold the stud into the
alternator to keep it from turning. Either a very thin 13 mm
wrench, or the double nut trick. Then reverse steps 15 to 1 in
reverse order.