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Last week I had to replace the alternator on my 1990 Festiva. I was in a hurry and it seemed to take me forever to get the alternator lined up with the holes on the block that the mounting bolt has to go through.
To get the alternator out I had removed the bracket that the adjusting screw uses to hold the position of the alternator. After about 10 minutes of fruitless effort, even using a small screw driver to feel into the hole to check the alignment, I noticed the bolts that had attached the bracket to the block. Unlike the mounting bolt they had a tip at the end without threads, obviously intended to make threading easier.
Here is what one of them looked like:
Using one of these bolts I was immediately able to push it into the hole in the block while moving the alternator to line up the holes. I then tightened the adjusting bolt to hold that position and replaced the bracket bolt with the mounting bolt, which easily pushed through to the threads necessary for mounting.
String enough of these kinds of tips together, and, pretty soon, a job becomes joy.
John Gunn
Coronado, CA
To get the alternator out I had removed the bracket that the adjusting screw uses to hold the position of the alternator. After about 10 minutes of fruitless effort, even using a small screw driver to feel into the hole to check the alignment, I noticed the bolts that had attached the bracket to the block. Unlike the mounting bolt they had a tip at the end without threads, obviously intended to make threading easier.
Here is what one of them looked like:
Using one of these bolts I was immediately able to push it into the hole in the block while moving the alternator to line up the holes. I then tightened the adjusting bolt to hold that position and replaced the bracket bolt with the mounting bolt, which easily pushed through to the threads necessary for mounting.
String enough of these kinds of tips together, and, pretty soon, a job becomes joy.
John Gunn
Coronado, CA
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