while chatting with a local tech today he mentioned he had replaced an alternator on an X type a short while back, he said he had to remove the water pump to get to the alternator...did he need you guys to advise him, or is that the correct way to remove the alternator?.
Mine is fine...just wondering for future reference

 

iownme, i think your mechanic is a little confused as the alternator is located on the front side of the engine (just behind the passenger side headlight), but the water pump is on the drivers side, just inside of the battery box. So, unless he was pulling out the whole engine, the two are not related. That may be true if he was dealing with say a Lincoln LS, but even then, I don't think the engineering is that bad.

 

sounds like he's trying to prepare me for a large bill if my alternator ever fails....little does he know i do all my own work :+)

So the alternator comes out without removing anything?..just want to be clear as i'll be mentioning it when i take it in for an alignment

 

iownme, there is a little bit of disassembly involved with the alternator. YOu need to remove the fender liner at a minimum and I seem to recall you need to unbolt the A/C compressor too from the block (but disconnecting of lines is not required).