Folks,

Today, I'm taking advantage of the weather and trying to get to the alternator in my /6 -- which is apparently dead. Anyway, i have shop manuals which, and this is unusual, are almost useless for this.

The carbs and manifolds are out. All shroud bolts (that I can find) are out.

The shop manual thinks I can remove the shroud -- but there are "issues". for example, there is a wiring thing that goes through roughly the center of the shroud. (hopefully there
are detachable ends behind it somehow).

Are there tricks at this stage that I should be aware of? I found the secret bold behind the distributor, and the other two secret bolts accessed under the car at the back. Did I miss something?

Just taking a break -- almost time to go back at it. Any BTDT appreciated of course!

kim.

not BTDT yet - just about got all the parts i need to play mix-n-match-the-fan-and-pulley games (but evidently i need a new set of alternator pulley adjusting washers ...)

anyway - the wires to the alternator have either push-on connectors, or you have to unbolt them from the alternator body once you get in there. the fan swapping article on the Pelican site strongly recommends disconnecting the POSITIVE cable from the battery (too) because one of those wires to the alternator connects DIRECTLY to the battery and will arc, spark, and weld itself to the body if it touches ...

Ah -- the battery -- good reminder.

I'm a little further now -- but there is a fair chunk of wiring harness that goes in roughly about dead center behind the bulge of the fan. it's basically the last thing in the way right now.

(I'm gonna go out and disconnect the battery now!)

[edit: oh i've shot a few pics on the way -- i"ll post them if they seem to have info]

kim.

I must be fairly far off course by now.

(The battery is disconnected) The sticking point is the cabling that goes through the shroud. There is a baffle system immediately behind the fan (the alternator is in the center of the fan) and the cable goes through the back of the baffle and (from touch) splits into two).

But how to get the cabling disconnected? The baffling system is held on by a myriad of bolts around its edge. It's conceivable that I could get to each bolt and remove it -- but reassembly would be a nightmare. I must be missing something.

kim.

Hey Kim,

BTDT... but it's been almost 4 years, so the details are kinda blurry
Can you slide the shroud over the wiring?
The wires are bolt on and not push on for sure...

cheers,

Jeroen

I just did this on my 3.0, on an engine stand. There are ~8 bolts holding the baffle thing on. You have to remove these bolts, to slide the baffle back, to disconnect the wires. Mine had nuts on the wiring connections. It was not easy on the stand, I imagine in the car it will be difficult.

Have fun

I tried once to pull of my shroud when the motor was in the car. No joy! I never did get it off. In fact, the motor is on a stand, and it still hasn't come off.



Please!?!?!?!

Or you could just take off the fan belt, remove the bolt(s) from the wide steel strap that holds the fan housing on, and remove the nut from the ground strap where it attaches to the case half. Then, assuming all other electrical connections on the engine wiring harness are disconnected, you can carefully lift out the shroud and fan/alternator as an entire unit. Fun, eh, removing all that stuff just to get to the alternator?

On my original six, it looked like some yokel cut the fiberglass shroud to get to the alternator, then reglassed it back together when he'd finished the work.

Thx guys!

I shall be trying again in the morning. The shroud on mine does have a stress fracture that looks to me like a PO somewhere was trying what I'm trying now. I'm being gentle, of course, but I think it's close.

I caught The Brad™ on the phone tonight -- I was talking about getting the fan belt off and he reminded me that there's a tool in my original tool kit that should help. (I'd not thought of the toolkit as having useful tools in it! )

Gint, I shall post pics on the morrow -- Carl and Meridith stopped by on a cruise in his beautiful /6 -- so there are actually gonna be pics of a running 914! Not mine, of course, but close enough for jazz.

kim.

BTDT.

Replaced the alternator of my 3.0 while it was in the car.

Only 3 wires go in the big hole in the shroud. When i took my alt out, i kinda puched the wires in to get me more room to pull the shroud away from the alt/fan housing. I then removed the small bolts for the air duct behind the alt (this was no fun). Removed the wires from the alt and finally got the shroud out of the way to remove the alt & fan housing.

I did have the belt and housing strap removed so i could tilt the housing to get to the bolts behing de shroud.

HTH

Marc-André

I put the shroud on my 2.7 on on a stand, and took it off on a stand. There aint no way Id do that in the car PITA. (in my nextdoor neighbor's hillbilly voice)

On one of my /6 conversions....we had an access port cut in the firewall between the seats. For some reason that ride used to like to eat fan belts.....

This is the approach I will take this morning. (thx, btw -- helps to know it's been successfully done before!)

As an aside, why wouldn't I cut the wires and install quick connects? I'm not going to this time, but it just seems to me that there must be modern connectors with the right properties to use somewhere in the middle of these three lines.....

Anyway, dawn is here and it should start warming up out there. Must get at 'er.

kim.

I always like to see pics of Carl's car, but I want to see pics of your shroud/fan/alternator work. Please?!?!

Check out Swenco Posi-Lock connectors. I absolutely love these things.

I'm shootin' extra pics just for you, mon ami.

A gorilla tightened fan belt nut.

This will be a mess to reassemble.

Wonder who has an alternator on a Sunday afternoon....

kim.

Thanks! I knew I could count on you Kim.

The factory tool actually works really well.

It does indeed! (hm... do I have to admit that I didn't notice the correct 22m wrench is also in the factory kit? I was standing at the table reading two manuals and the kit was there with fan belts and the frikk'n wrench -- right under my nose -- and at some point I noticed it... duh...) The awkward part is getting the force on the wrench -- eventually I worked it out and it came loose.

Ok, the alternator is out.

Now we start with the pics.

One at a time, of course.

A couple of opening shots so I can remember what it looked like before I got DWD.

kim.

sdfg

What's in that box from Brad?

You need to see a flowering plant.

Carbs out.

[can't add the pic under edit? oh well]

carbs out.

sadfafsd

The clean carbs have worn throttle shafts.

The dirty ones do too, but much less so.

Interrupted -- Carl and Meridith drop by.

bye bye...

Intake manifolds next.

asdf

Now it gets interesting. Most obvious things have been unbolted/etc -- the cable in the center of the shroud is the culprit -- it winds through the air diverter gadget bolted to the back of the fan/alternator, underneath the shroud, and ends up bolted to the back of the alternator itself.

Now we unbolt all shroud bolts. Most are visible. There are a coupel that are not. Front edge of the shroud has bolts (most interesting one is behind the dizzy) and there are two that are accessed from under the car on the drivers side, just up from the rear wheel.

Once those are off (and various wires are unhooked) the shroud will lift and can be weasled to the back of the engine. A camera can be shoved under the shroud and a couple of pics will show the diverter and the wires/etc.

another angle.

Now, after disconnecting the fan belt, and unbolting the retaining straps, the unit is movable, and you can see the nuts you have to remove to get at the back of the alternator.

Remove the nuts, and slide the diverter gadget back along the wires, revealing the back of the alternator.

And voila! The alternator, she is out!

And it's serial number.

(mike I've other pics from other angles -- these show most thing tho -- if you want more, let me know)

kim.

That will do nicely KiM, thanks. now that you've showed me yours, I'll show you mine when I tear it apart to seal the motor after the car goes to the shop.

Just a thought.....would it be easier for future jobs to put a wiring disconnect where the harness goes thru the cowling? Of course your will never use it per Murphy's Law, but it would help if if ever needed R&R again.....

BTW....you could prolly sell BOTH sets of Wberes and almost have enuff for a nice purty set of PMOs.....

I can't wait to see yours.. hmm... wait a sec... maybe I can

kim.

Yeh, I was mumbling about that earier -- as long as the connectors withstand the thrill of being in the engine compartment (which should be doable) -- it would just seem to make
sense to make this section of wiring split-able in the middle. (You could pull the shroud without all this fuss if you wanted to ensure the top of the engine was clean and the air pathways good and so forth. You could also R&R the shroud itself (perhaps install a spanky new carbon fiber one )

Just seems to make sense to me. We'll see.

First I have to sort out this stupid alternator. I'm sure there's a more modern replacement?

Re: PMO's -- they are purty. But if I unload both webers, at least one formerly-running-car has a new issue.....

kim.

i nominate this thread for Classic status !!!

Agreed! I will resize pictures (sometime today, when I get some) and move it.

Just got to this thread. Curious, why did you not remove the engine lid cover?
CCLINBTDT

Should have! (did not occur to me until someone else mentioned it -- and I was mostly done) I may yet pop it off for the reassembly steps -- it's funny, the entire procedure was not that bad once you knew what to do. I'm sure next time it would go much more quickly.

We'll see how putting it all back together goes .

kim.

Alrighty then.

First, I have a new alternator. $129 w/core. Old one was burnt out. They swapped the new one into the fan assembly as part of the deal -- took all of 7 minutes and I'm back in business.

So the dangerous part starts now. I figured, hey, as long as I'm in there.... Ok, so not quite -- I'd be happy to just put the sucker back together and see if it runs. But I took the fan shroud off completely, mostly to tease Gint, but also to get a look underneath for a visual inspection. I think I've got two or three issues to contend with.

First the shroud itself is cracked -- looks like a PO tried to force it out and fractured the fiberglass. I'll clean it off tonight and see what the repair looks like. (doesn't look all that hard) I'll post pics of that later.

I have two possibly more serious issues to ask about.

The first is what appears to be an oil leak on the top of the engine. The front two bolts on top of the case appear to have reasonably fresh oil on them. (It's not completely fresh, and the engine hasn't run for any length of time in a couple of months, so it's a little hard to say) The pic from the drivers side shows the top two bolts, and on to the case just above the cylinders.

It may be nothing (there was an oil leak on top of the engine a while ago as one of the oil lines was not tight enough) but I got'sta ask.

kim.

The next thing I can see is that there is crap on the top of the oil cooler. Now, on the morrow, I intend to mess with my shopvac and see what sort of clean up I can affect. But I was wondering if there are other things I could/should be doing to clean this guy out since I can get at the top of him?

kim.

Nice work Kim. Anybody make 911 engine shrouds?

Oil cooler cleaning - Get a case of brake cleaner and apply it liberally down the cooler.

OK, so what is the question?

It appears that you're not the first one to be rootin' around in there. Your cylinders look to be aluminum
rather than iron.

I would say you have an oil leak(at least one).
The leak at the case split can be fixed only by splitting the case unless you get real lucky. The bolts/nuts may be loose, but tightening them will only slow it down....better than nuthin'. The fan blows any leaks all over creation......like into the oil cooler

By all means, clean the thing off...best you can.

BTW, I take off the trunk lid for any serious engine room work. By kneeling in the trunk, you can really get after "stuff".

Shop vacs and voliatle fumes are a real bad combo. Use care.

911 Engine shrouds? AIR makes a CF one.

JP:

great point on the shopvac/fume issue. I'll be mindful.

On your other point (am I the first? doubtful....), I'll have to dig out the docs from the purchase -- we're in a house reno situation and not all paper can be easily found. You ask "my point?" -- you've supplied it. I wouldn't have spotted what you easily did! (i.e. aluminum cylinders)

Gint:

If I fire brake cleaner down the cooler, will it land in a reasonably predictable area under the car? (i.e. we're in my car port -- I'm trying not to hose up the surface under it. It's already marked the tranny area as it's own .... but that's the next project. )

kim.

Put some plastic under it. Brake cleaner will evaporate, eventually.