OK. Thought the battery was going bad so I bought an Optima (wanted one anyway). Turns out it was the starter going bad (it's guts fell out when I took it off). O'Reilly's had a remanufactured Bosch for $50! Stuck it in and it works great. Then I noticed the Alternator light was on and stayed on. I then remembered I installed my Optima backwards for a few seconds (the posts are opposite from the old battery and I am a dumbass). I bet I fried the diodes. So I call O'Reilly's and, thats right, they had my alternator for $50. Now I am out of daylight and I need to know how hard is it to swap out the alternator? Do I really have to remove the heat exchanger? I have a 2.0 with a sideshifter if that helps. By the way, those Bosch parts come with a limited lifetime waranty. Hooray for FLAPS!

Starter guts.

I have one of their alternators in my Datsun. No problems in over a year. I couldn't justify spending 3X as much for a Nissan part. If it fails, I'll just take it back since it has a lifetime warranty.

I just remember I put one of their starters in my Olds about 3 years ago with no problems to date.

I have one of OReilly's alts on my teener... be careful though... the posts were too long, I mean WAY too long, I had to cut them down AND use smaller bolts, so they didn't ground out... do a continuity test(both positive and negative cont.) before running it... you WILL have continuity one way always(because of the recifier plate, but the opposite way should NEVER have continuity... I didn't test first, and burned up a wiring harness...

Oreilly stands by their warranty though, they took it back and gave me another... good show to O'Reilly! $50, and a free replacement, got the part overnight and no shipping!!

You were right. The bolts were way too long. A couple of seconds with the cutoff wheel and presto. I then proceeded to then bend the pulley getting it off the old alt. Did I mention I'm a dumbass? By the way, anyone know what that rubber coated doohickey is screwed to the back of the alt.? I transfered it to the new one. You can see it in the picture.

That "doohickey" is a condensor / capacitor. A must have for the alternator.

OK. Fixed the bent pulley wheel. I have everything ready to go except the gasket that goes on the back of the alt. Do I really need this gasket? It is the only thing keeping me from finishing tonight.