Alternator Bolt broken

the joys of buying a used car

I've had a accessory belt squeak for a short while and figured i'd try to fix it today. what i found was the alternator was loose... and i mean the entire alternator. the top and bottom bolts were about 1/2" out.. so i grab the bottom bolt to see if it will turn with my fingers and it falls right off..sheared about 1" from the bolt head.. top bolt comes out no problem.

so i try a couple different extractors and even sawzall the ear off the alternator so i can get closer to the remainder of the bolt... i put the grip of death on that thing and finally broke one of the extractors but the bolt didn't even budge...

i've looked all over and can't see a way of removing the alternator..if i pound the bolt in, it will hit the webbing on the bracket that holds the alt, IP, etc. so i can't move it that way.

Am i missing something or do i now have to remove the IP, PS pump, and everything else attached to that huge bracket then remove the bracket itself? if it were the top bolt i could have pounded it out as there isn't an interference issue on that one but of course my luck its the bottom bolt.

thanks for any advice..

__. If the thing holding it in is a broken bolt, I'd try to hold the broken bolt and get the nut off of it, then try to push it out in an area where there's clearance. Or push as much of the broken bolt out as possible and then cut or grind it off until it's small enough to get all of it out. But if you have a car with the ALH engine, it's gonna be hard -- there is very little clearance.

__. Have a look at the process for removing the alternator in this thread.

its an ALH. there is no clearance to push the bolt out..it will go straight into the large cast bracket that holds everything..

The Joys of buying USED ~ Same song second verse....






Po installed a gas 1.8 90 amp Bosch alternator with no clutch. This has made the belt chirp as the tensioner is now failing. Bought a new Bosch 120 amp Alternator, New tensioner, New belt, New idlers.

Upon removing the alternator I discovered the PO used Home Depot style No Grade bolts (which were also too long). Lower came out ok / upper was run into the casting behind it and probably damaged. Upper wrung off at the threads upon attempted removal (2" or so left in the alt/bracket). So now I am facing removing all accessories to remove the accessory bracket, and diving into an unexpected timing belt service all in an effort to repair a belt squeak at idle. No Bently manual, no metal Nerd timing tools, no contitech timing kit, ~ Due to make a 300 mile road trip to visit relatives out of town for Christmas in 48hrs.


Looking at breaking the back top ear off of the old alternator, pushing it out the 1/2 inch behind the bracket and then chopping the bolt / threaded ring into 2-3 pieces (drive it out, then cut it ~ repeat).

Otherwise I'm doing a timing belt procedure in the blind just bringing everything to TDC and marking the belt / pulleys. None of these are how I prefer to do things, but a T'd off wife will drive a man to things he would not normally do.

Any words of wisdom? I was already successful ONCE in chopping off the 3/8" of excess bolt sticking out behind the threaded ring, now If I can just drive the ring out another 3/8".

whitfield96 said:

So now I am facing removing all accessories to remove the accessory bracket, and diving into an unexpected timing belt service all in an effort to repair a belt squeak at idle. No Bently manual, no metal Nerd timing tools, no contitech timing kit, ~ Due to make a 300 mile road trip to visit relatives out of town for Christmas in 48hrs.

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That sucks. Very bad news.
But if you're in a jam, then it's worth noting that you can entirely remove the accessory belt and the car will still run.
You would be without Power Steering and Air Conditioning, and of course your battery wouldn't charge. But if you're up against it in terms of time, 300 miles you could do without shutting the car down. Especially if you do the trip in the daytime (would suck for lights to die on you midway) and have a battery charger to use at your destination.
Obviously this is not ideal, but it might be a better option than rushing into what might turn into an open-ended series of maintenance items that you're not fully prepped for.

Man that is a tough deal....lots a pressure and knowing your luck you will find other things wrong. I would just rent a car for the trip :/

I've had two broken that way, both had good clutch pulleys on the alternator.
One I sawed away enough of the alternator to get out the bolt. The other had to have more surgery and finally a new ancillary bracket because the bolt woudn't extract from the bracket. Different metals together corrosion syndrome?

This probably won't help, but... since I haven't had my 2nd cup of coffee yet, I'll throw it out there...

The alternator casting is quite breakable... (I saw someone try to move the rear threading outward by hammering on it... broke the ear right off...)

Perhaps some not-so-gentle persuasion will succeed in breaking off the alternator corner and they you'll be able to work at removing the rest...

Just a thought...

Good luck!

Yuri

Went thru this earlier this year. You are going to have to destroy the alternator to get to the bolt. I finally ended up with most of it broken away and had to cut the bolt remanent with a cheapy garbage freight pencil grinder and diamond wheel. When I went down for the replacement unit, the counter guys laughed at what I had for a core...they hadn't belived me when I said it was destroyed....

Part I am working on (Top alternator bolt) is just to the left and down from the hose clamp. For reference ~ the bottom bolt of the alternator is just above the oil pan and the top bolt of the alternator is by the big radiator hose that connects at about the middle of the block. . .

This morning I was able to warm the back ear of the alternator with an Acetylene torch and press the puck/wrung off bolt assembly out the back - 3/8". Then chop that part off with a Reciprocating saw (REPEAT) Press the bolt puck assy out again and cut it off once more. Then the puck bolt assembly was short enough to extract out of the back.


First picture is of the second cut.




Second picture is of the bolt and press in puck assembly now free of the alternator.



And now the alternator is free.



Lastly the new FACTORY VW alternator bolts.

The puck and wrung off bolt glued back together for display. Looks like with an oem bolt you might could have done this in one cut. Mine (with the too long bolt) took (2) cuts.

sorry ~ new phone = bad picture. I need to play with the macro / close up feature some more.


Bad tensioner ~ what triggered the investigation / problem finding.

If you look closely ~ one of these tensioner bolts is not like the OEM... THe large bolt in the middle does not fit through the hole in the new tensioner.

It turns out that this hole had been repaired once before and the solution was to drill out the tensioner and thread the hole for a larger bolt. The scarry part was that all of my tensioner bolts were loose on diss-assembly.

Drilled the NEW tensioner out to fit this oversized bolt (this bigger bolt could be a good thing). Aligned it all up and installed. Quick search says torque spec is 18 ft lbs. ~ I took all (3) to 20 ft. lbs.

OH and by the way... I read of folks changing the alternator without dropping the ac compressor. Dropping the AC compressor makes things so much easier. The less I disturb the cooling lines and ac lines trying to force large objects through tight spaces the better off I'll be.

And I did press out the NEW pucks on the new alternator. Anti-seize the new pucks and press them back in, I anti-seized the NEW bolts to. Screw loc-tite ~ far as I'm concerned the darned thing can fall off before I have to go through another wrung off bolt extraction. I'm perfectly comfortable with the anti-seize and just tightening it down.

I managed to save the alternator. I will get my local alternator / starter guy to break it down and check it out to make sure the heat did not damage it (but I think we are safe / torch was a small plumbing repair style acetylene only).

Wifey had ordered a new clutch pulley before we learned this was only a 90 amp. SO If I'm lucky may have a good TDI clutched spare.

On the test drive Wifey took a trip through the drive through to pick up a quick dinner.

She immediately noticed how quiet the car was. She said before, it was so loud that at certain places she was cutting the car off to talk to the drive through folks.

Which got me thinking ~ could a drive through trip tell a trained ear if the clutch pulley is bad?



Thanks ~ Michael and Holley

CopaMundial said:

That sucks. Very bad news.
But if you're in a jam, then it's worth noting that you can entirely remove the accessory belt and the car will still run.
You would be without Power Steering and Air Conditioning, and of course your battery wouldn't charge. But if you're up against it in terms of time, 300 miles you could do without shutting the car down. Especially if you do the trip in the daytime (would suck for lights to die on you midway) and have a battery charger to use at your destination.
Obviously this is not ideal, but it might be a better option than rushing into what might turn into an open-ended series of maintenance items that you're not fully prepped for.

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Thanks! I had not considered running without the Serp-belt accessories as an option. Heck, I've got a spare optima yellow top and a Snap-on worthy Jump pack...


BTW ~ I was not against carving the alternator up like a Thanksgiving Turkey, but following through with how would I attack it once the alternator ear was detached ~ Even with removal of the alternator it did not look like I would gain much more room to work. The bracket / ear / bracket tight relation with stuff in the way would still be an issue.

whitfield96 said:

If you look closely ~ one of these tensioner bolts is not like the OEM... THe large bolt in the middle does not fit through the hole in the new tensioner.

It turns out that this hole had been repaired once before and the solution was to drill out the tensioner and thread the hole for a larger bolt. The scarry part was that all of my tensioner bolts were loose on diss-assembly.

Drilled the NEW tensioner out to fit this oversized bolt (this bigger bolt could be a good thing). Aligned it all up and installed. Quick search says torque spec is 18 ft lbs. ~ I took all (3) to 20 ft. lbs.
.

Click to expand...

Thats how I fixed mine after a search on here. Removing the bracket to insert a helicoil or tapsert would have required removing the IP and timing belt and such. Worked great.

I managed to break my lower alternator bolt tonight. Was tightening it and it snapped. I was in the process of trying to pull the bushing in the alternator to get it tight (had pressed it out on the bench to make it easier to get into position), but I guess the bushing didn't move and the bolt snapped. Anyway, how difficult is it to get at the accessory bracket bolts (worst case scenario)? Is there a bolt directly behind the alternator? I see one on the bottom side that might be tricky to get out, but not impossible. I may also try to break the ear off the alternator. Really don't want to mess with the timing belt. Oh what a night...

I thought that I read recently here (but can't find the thread!!!) about someone being able to saw out the stub of the bolt around the driver's side bushing - destroying the bushing, but getting the alternator out... I believe he used a hacksaw blade (covered with a shop towel for holding...)

I once saw someone drill it out from the passenger side... (long drill bit...)

Good luck!!

Yuri

I broke the bottom bolt and cannot even see the bushing.

SLVVR6 said:

I broke the bottom bolt and cannot even see the bushing.

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From the sound of all the trouble (time and effort) the car is likely totaled, call the junk yard...

Lol...yup.