alternator Died//DIY???

D

david

Member
Location
mississippi
I think my alternator is dead. My fx died on the interstate today in traffic. had my battery checked and charged up. tried to make it home and failed.

with the battery charged we gor 12.8 volts at the battery it did not go up with the engine on and running or while being revved up

is the alternator fairly easy to swap out? From the bottom?? Any tips would be great!
 
la_fx35 changed out his pulleys a few months ago and had to remove his alternator for it. You should be able to crawl underneath the car without jacking it up to get to it, since the alternator is on the bottom of the engine, just remove the underpan. Also, its close to impossible to get it unbolted by hand, so you will need a impact gun to loosen the bolt that attaches to the alternator. He used a 650 lb. impact gun I think.
 
What Aero meant was I need to use the impact gun on the alternator only because I need to take the pulley off it. In your case, you should need an impact gun since you're replacing the whole thing. I'm pretty sure the replacement already have the pulley on it, so you don't really need an impact in change out your alternator, but be fore warn that it sit pretty tight on it bracket (the bracket is between the front & back red circle area in the pic). It won't come/fell off even with the main bolt taken out. You got to take pry bar and keep work at it to get it off it's bracket. Good luck.
View attachment 227774

Oh one more, it a PITA to get to the back to take the cable off too. Just so you know.
 
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^ +1.

I'm pretty much well rounded around cars and have changed many alternators before. I think 2 hours should be sufficient.
 
Funny how this post came up...

My Mazda's alternator crapped out last Thursday and I was able to change it without any DIY. It took me 1.5 hours to change out. It's really a matter of unplug, unbolt, replace, replug, rebolt.

I had very little space to work with the Mazda, but there is plenty of space for the FX which would make this easier...
 
well getting the plugs off was the hardest part. The stock clip was brittle and cracked. Parts store didnt carry a replacement. Infiniti quoted me $700 for the entire wire setup with plu etc (i only needed the plug)

We made our on plug with wire spade terminals and dielectric grease and reinstalled

getting the nit off the back that holds the large wire on was a pain as well

done. hope to get a pro to swap out my power steering pump soon.
 
Add to my fx difficulties. The replacement alternator is charging too high consistently (15.8volts) and it's killing batteries. Any way to add a external voltage regulator to tune it down to 14 volts or so or is my only option to replace another alternator :-(
 
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