How to remove ALH alternator pulley in car

Alternator pulley cotton ball trick

Ateesman said:

Ok - finally got all the parts (and the tool) and I can't get the remnants of the pulley to budge.
I have an extension on my 17mm wrench and have the 14mm wrench stuck against the frame. So far - the wrenches (one or the other) keep slipping off. I haven't damaged the tool yet - but I am afraid that I will. I sprayed a ton of WD40 in there and am letting it sit over night.
If that doesn't help, anyone have any other ideas?

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I did mine not too long ago. At first my pulley wouldn't budge and I didn't want to overtorque it and break something.

I took a cotton ball and soaked it in Kroil (you could use any penetrating fluid) and stuffed it in the recess in the alternator pulley hub. The cotton ball is just the right size for this and acts as a dam so a small pool of Kroil sits against the hub threads.

I let it sit for about an hour and the hub popped right off as soon as I torqued it.

This thread is super long so I didn't read the whole thing but I wanna stick this up here.

I ordered an alt tool update kit from MN, which is just the modified/shortened shaft holding bit. This was after I made my own.

I could never get it to work and always wound up pulling the alternator. One day I was looming for the "ring bit" (the part that holds the pulley) after removing an alt and sticking it up in the vice. Couldn't find it. Looked everywhere. It was gone.

Ordered another alt bit set from chuck and he mentions that the newer ring bits are not as deep.

After the new tool shows up I invite the customer to come back in so I can actually fix their pulley this time and I am immediately able to locate the old bit that was lost forever. Side by side the newer ring bit is indeed not as long as the one supplied in the early alt bit sets.

I was able to swap out the pulley on the car with absolutely no problem. I had forgotten how much easier it is than pulling the thing out.

So moral of the story: if you have an early style alt bit set you can't just get the shortened shaft bit, you have to buy a whole new set.

Robi said:

I initially had the car towed to the the closest VW dealer to my son's college to have it repaired as I thought the job was more than I could handle. They quoted removal and replacement of the alternator at $1200 + tax. I thought this was a bit too much and asked if they could just replace the damaged pulley. They said that was not possible and tried to convince me the part I saw left on the alternator only came with the alternator.

Ron

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Amazing how clueless some dealers can be. Makes me question their ability to handle more complicated tasks. (E.g., timing belts.)

I can confirm that at least on the 05 PD, the pulley is reverse threaded. Turning it clockwise released it with a little bit of effort.

Again that is for the 05 PD. I can't speak to other models.

AstroEng said:

I can confirm that at least on the 05 PD, the pulley is reverse threaded. Turning it clockwise released it with a little bit of effort.

Again that is for the 05 PD. I can't speak to other models.

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Are you sure you were turning the pulley rather than the alternator shaft inside the pulley???

As far as I can tell, the 2005 Golf TDI and the 2002 Golf TDI use the same alternator pulley, and the ALH-engine alternator pulleys are not reverse-threaded...

Yuri

AstroEng said:

I can confirm that at least on the 05 PD, the pulley is reverse threaded. Turning it clockwise released it with a little bit of effort.

Again that is for the 05 PD. I can't speak to other models.

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Couldn't have been.

AstroEng said:

I can confirm that at least on the 05 PD, the pulley is reverse threaded. Turning it clockwise released it with a little bit of effort.

Again that is for the 05 PD. I can't speak to other models.

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The thread is NOT REVERSED. It may seem that way, because if you hold the pulley solid and turn the shaft, it rotates clockwise to loosen giving you the impresion that its reversed threrad. But turning the shaft clockwise is the same as turning the pulley counter clockwise, meaning it is in fact, not a reversed thread. If you wer to hold the shaft solid and turn the pulley, it would spin off counter closckwise like a regular thread.

just changed mine hoping it was the reason my tensioner was making noise, but it wasnt. great guide none the less, thanks!

I read this thread a day too late, DOH! The mechanic I went to told me that the shaft on the alternator was "coned" and therfore the entire alternator had to be replaced. After seeing some pictures, apparently it's a typical alternator pulley problem.

Anyway, 650$ later I have a new alternator and serpentine belt in my car when I could have replaced the pulley and belt myself for less than 200$ much like Robi did.

One thing I'm glad about is not taking the cheap-ass 10$ core they were going to give me and just took my original alternator back, now that's a smokin' deal for a spare alternator (minus a pulley).

This thread will be helpful this weekend. Thanks.

migbro said:

I did mine not too long ago. At first my pulley wouldn't budge and I didn't want to overtorque it and break something.

I took a cotton ball and soaked it in Kroil (you could use any penetrating fluid) and stuffed it in the recess in the alternator pulley hub. The cotton ball is just the right size for this and acts as a dam so a small pool of Kroil sits against the hub threads.

I let it sit for about an hour and the hub popped right off as soon as I torqued it.

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Can you explain where you did this? Is the recess you speak of where the spline tool goes?

I just tackled this issue tonight with little success. We moved to Orlando, FL from Colorado a year and a half ago, and all my cheater pipes are in storage.

The MN tool takes a 12mm wrench. I couldn't get it to budge to save my life. I'm not sure what to do from here. I don't think I can drive the car very far (it got me home the other day... 40 miles with a broken alternator pulley).

I'm really frustrated.

Matt,

I still haven't done it yet. Car still sits in the drive way, and my parts haven't arrived.

Try the soaking method, I wil probably let this cotton ball soak for a few days, in the hopes that it will be easy when I do it:

migbro said:

STRANGETDI said:

I saw this quote by you and and was a little curious about it. I need to remove the pulley this weekend.

migbro said:

I did mine not too long ago. At first my pulley wouldn't budge and I didn't want to overtorque it and break something.

I took a cotton ball and soaked it in Kroil (you could use any penetrating fluid) and stuffed it in the recess in the alternator pulley hub. The cotton ball is just the right size for this and acts as a dam so a small pool of Kroil sits against the hub threads.

I let it sit for about an hour and the hub popped right off as soon as I torqued it.

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Can you explain where you did this? Is the recess you speak of where the spline tool goes?

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Yes. The recess in the center of the alternator pulley.

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Sometimes (often?) the pulley is really stuck on the alternator shaft, and you have no choice other than removing the alternator from the car and possibly using impact tools as a last resort...

Yuri

PS: make sure you're turning things in the proper direction: the pulley does NOT have a left-hand thread... the pulley unscrews from the alternator shaft in the normal counter-clockwise direction... Where people get confused is when they're actually trying to turn the alternator shaft (inside splined tool) while holding on to the pulley (outside splined tool), in which case one will be turning the alternator shaft clockwise...

I wound up taking the car to the local VW shop. The guys there were really friendly, and popped/swapped the pulley and installed my belt for $40. I thought that was reasonable considering I didn't want to keep banging on it.

The bonus is the shop only had the tool to do it out of the car. He's going to order the tool so he can replace them in the car now. Makes for a quicker turn around time!

I just had mine done a couple weeks ago. Took off the alternator and took it into a private VW mechanic. Took him about 10 minutes and did an excellent job. I would have done it myself, but by the time I bought a new tool, part, and had everything shipped, it wasn't worth it.

eap said:

Did this job yesterday on our 2003 Wagon. I had the Metalnerd new version tools and the oem pulley and belt. The pulley was still in place but once I started removing things to get a view it was aparent that the bearing/clutch had grenaded with the evidence of metal shavings. There were shavings that went clear through the belt in places.

I had some frustration as I was unable to get the splined tool into the pulley. I ended up prying the pully apart and grabbing what was left with vise grips. I then used the shaft tool to unthread it by turning the shaft. Once I had the remains of the pulley out I examined them. I could see any outright deformation or damage significant enough to not allow the tool to mate to the pulley. It in fact looks like the ID of the pulley is smaller than that of the tool by enough that it won't fit. The tool worked fine for reassembly of the new pulley however.

Has anyone else experienced this? Maybe there was another version at some point during production? The car was produced in 2002 and has 120K on the clock.

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This is exactly what is happening to me right at this moment. The MN tool just won't fit. I might be able to get it in maybe an 1/8" but I as I try to do the remove sequence, I can tell that I am starting to strip the alternator shaft bolt head. Can you explain your process of removal a little more? How do you pry the pulley apart? I may have to go this route or have it towed to get it fixed. Getting frustrated...

I have the tools but I cannot turn the splined bit counter-clockwise. I have tried tapping the wrench, Pblasting the nut, heating it, nothing.

Any other tips to remove this thing?

Sometimes they really don't want to come off... The only way to recover then is to take the alternator out and work on it on the bench...

Sorry for asking, but... are you SURE you're turning things in the correct direction? When you say you can't "turn the splined bit counter-clockwise" are you talking about the outer ("Ring") splined bit as opposed to the inner ("Shaft") splined bit??

Yuri

Yep, inner triple square bit is being held steady while I try to turn the outer splined bit counter-clockwise. This is with the alternator out of the car and held in my bench vise.

If it's out of car, I assume you've already put it up on its back and soaked the inside of the pulley with PB-Blaster or equivalent...

I know that MetalNerd says these aren't impact tools, but we've had luck putting an impact gun (in the forward, clockwise direction) on the inside triple-square driver... (do make sure that both the splined and triple square bits are well seated in their targets...)

Yuri

I just did this on my wife's car yesterday, and I was astounded at how stuck on there the pulley was. Under the car, I had the 12mm wrench on the triple-square resting/wedged against the frame rail, then was pulling on that 17mm wrench so hard, I was afraid it was going to snap. I had to get off my wheeled creeper because I couldn't anchor myself enough, then also put my foot against one of the ramps - and when it went, it went: I fell backwards quite nicely.
(Translation: That sucker was on there TIGHT!)

The thing I discovered (don't remember seeing this mentioned previously), after unscrewing and seeing it come probably 90% off, was that I had to remove the splined tool and just put the triple-square in there to turn the pulley the last couple revolutions - the tripple-square was no longer holding the shaft.

Having done the pulley swap a couple years ago by taking the alternator out of the car, it's a no-brainer that this is the way to go. When the biggest PITA is pulling off the damn side-skirt (with the support for the skid plate complicating things a little), vs. messing around with an A/C compressor, radiator fan, mounting tabs, etc., etc. - well, that pretty much speaks for itself.

Got it off today. I did like you said, Yuri, and put on its butt end and filled the spline socket cap with Pblaster and let it sit for 2 days. I had to go out of town anyway so that extra time soaking may have helped. Then I used my 17mm wrench and cheater and off it came.

I don't think there was anything wrong with this pulley but after the trauma I experienced as detailed in another thread, I didn't want to take any chances.

thanks for the helpful thread! did my mom's wagon tonight. simple and straightforward!

mine done without a problem

Just got mine done a couple days ago without a problem.

I ordered the (Part MN3400 - Serrated Alternator Pulley Bit SET) from metalnerd and other parts (Alternator pulley, idler pulley and serpentine belt) from mentalmanparts.com.

I did mine in about an hour total (including replacing idler pulley). The alternator pulley loosened after one strong turn with the tool (I used 2 box wrenches to give more leverage) and hand turn after that.

Thanks for the tips!

wnytdi said:

Just got mine done a couple days ago without a problem. (snip) The alternator pulley loosened after one strong turn with the tool

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__. That's good. The direction of rotation of the alternator tends to tighten the thread in use and sometimes they can be a pure b!tch to get off. Doing it in the car is *much* better than pulling the alternator.

I really don't see how you can do a ALH alt pully in car. It literally only takes 15min tops to drop the AC compressor and unbolt the alternator. Then you can do it on the bench, way easier when you have a pulley that just won't budge.

BEWs are a different story. I think its actually easier ON the car then it is off due to the alt being held in place by the engine.

turbocharged798 said:

I really don't see how you can do a ALH alt pully in car. It literally only takes 15min tops to drop the AC compressor and unbolt the alternator. Then you can do it on the bench, way easier when you have a pulley that just won't budge. .

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It literally takes 10 minutes ON the car with the proper tools.......

Well I believe that it could take ten minutes if the darn thing would have broken loose. Mine is stuck. Ended up having to button it back up with new tensioner and serp belt and old pulley for now.

alternator pulley/tools

Long story short, my pulley came off on the road too. I just placed an order at 2 web sites -- fyi for anyone needing the tools and pulley:

AutohausAZ -- $54.47 for the pulley -- FREE S/H (found several other sites and the lowest was $77, up from there to well over $100)

Metalnerd tools -- $29.95 +$6.93 S/H for USPS priority - lowest offer of s/h