Alternator change 1st failure
 

Well Eid is coming to an end and I planned to put in my brand new alternator.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...045cec4e9.jpeg

But I failed today to change It out. Followed Gus’ jagrepair.com instructions and the car fought me every step of the way. Even taking out the air box proved troublesome.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...97ca1f33e.jpeg
The rubber sprung support, outer side, broke in two. Not normally a problem but one of the inner plugs was already snapped. Found that out as I recently changed the air tunnel, so probably the old plastics and rubbers were telling me .... that they’re old.

Then the cooling fan assembly would not come out despite unclipping the upper coolant hoses. Lots of side tabs on my fan unit fouling pipes and more importantly an AC freon line. Probably not the original OEM fan unit. Had to give up. As I lost a few litres of coolant, I went to check the coolant tank and the cap broke. Bugger!

As I had to abandon removing the fans, I hoped I had enough room to work so carried on.

Removing the serpentine belt was easy enough but the idler pulley had score marks on it. Didn’t rattle when spun, but I’ll need to change it out.

The real bugger was the restricted access to the alternator from the top.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...535679dc4.jpeg
Had past oil leak from camshaft cover, when I got the car, and the old alternator was covered in old oil. One of the reasons it’s not working 100percent. Even bending heat shields out of the way, I couldn’t get to the ground connector or plug or to the upper bolt. There’s a nut on the bolt that just wouldn’t work with me.

Looked from underneath for access and spotted another reason why the alternator isn’t working as there’s a plastic aero foil, I think, upside down, blocking airflow to the C duct that cools the alternator. I switched it round.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...1044154c2.jpeg
I presume this is the right way up?

Having a beer now to regroup and maybe try again. Do I need to take out oil filter for access from the bottom or am I missing something?

Correction to reference - jagrepair.com
 

Moderators - correction to my reference to Gus’ website. Should be to jagrepair.com. Link below

JagRepair.com - Jaguar Repair Information Resource

David, your comments about the connection reminder me of my battles. See if this helps: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...ght=Alternator

John

Thanks for the update
 

Sorry to hear that you had such a bad experience. I am getting ready to face the same problem and thanks for you input. When I had to replace my radiator removing the fans was not difficult so surprised you ran into problems there. I believe I pulled the air box also but maybe not . While the workshop manual does not mention it I will also remove the oil filter. The work shop manual talks about making a tool to remove the nut with the bush that may help you. My problem is also the result of an oil leak so replacing the valve cover gasket is my first step.

Hope your next attempt is better and please keep us posted.

Removing the oil filter on my wife's 2006 XK8 gave me considerably more working room when I had the alternator refurbished last July. Good luck with your efforts....

David - hope you have better luck next attempt. I fixed the link for you

Your Duct scoop looks right. I have a coupe and and XJ so I don't have the bar going through the scoop like that.

I drilled 2 small holes in my scoops and use a zip tie to snug the scoop to the C duct to better direct the airflow.

Threatening to swap with younger model improves performance
 

Well, after my failure to change the alternator, my car’s electrical gremlins seems to have disappeared. So much so, I didn’t put the Battery tender on for a couple of days of non driving, and all seems to be well. No window memory loss, no erroneous messages on the dash. When running at idle, I’m getting a solid 13.5V charge voltage across the battery too. Result!

When I do any job, I consider it good practise to grease things and spray contact cleaner on any connections, as I go along.

The only thing I can think of, is the when I tried to undo the alternator’s ground, which I failed, I did have to clean it before trying to unbolt it and I sprayed it liberally with Contact cleaner. It’s rubber cover was coated with old oil too, so cleaned that also. That must have improved the alternator’s ground contact.

Now I’m contemplating, would threatening to change the missus with a younger model, also improve her performance? LOL

Why I couldn’t remove cooling fan unit
 

Removing the cooking’s fans here was a problem because of lines going to the AC drier. Here in the Middle East, summer is extremely hot so AC repair shops are common. Servicing an AC here includes regular replacement of the AC drier due to the humidity. And so I have a spare.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...69b99219c.jpeg
I did notice the one in the car isn’t the same. Plus the AC lines to it seems to jointed with different pipe materials. Probably a Bahraini bodge job. Also the cooling fan unit seems to have multiple side fixing bracket/fins so probably it isn’t OEM either

Hence the massive problem when I failed to lift it straight up and out.

Thanks for the info. Will give cleaning the ground a shot before doing a replacement. By the way did you ever get a "Battery not charging" message?

I couldn't get to the connectors at the rear of the alternator until it was free of its mountings, allowing it to be rotated.

if you're looking to source a replacement 'instrumount' for the airbox, then do a search here as someone has posted a reasonably-priced alternative. The dealer price will make your eyes water.

Unlikely, and you run the risk of a well-targeted blow significantly reducing yours ;)

Back at it - Second attempt to change alternator
 

Well,

Here I go again. Recently I’ve been having similar problems as Dale had, and I put it down to a combination of Very Hot weather, low battery and a dodgey alternator.

But this time I’m better prepared with an alternative approach... from Youtube .... in French.


Having been here before, I think I can get around having his approach to removing the oil filter. But let’s see.

I couldn’t have picked a worst time of year to do this job. Summer here is regularly 45degC (110degF) plus during the day and humidity is terrible during the night. Hot and sweaty in the garage but at least I can retreat to my AC-ed work shop. I think I’ll give myself a 2 to 3 hour window in the morning to work on the car until the heat becomes unbearable.

One of the reasons I’m doing this now is that it’s a public holiday here, Eid Al Adha, so I have a few days run at my second attempt to switch the alternator.

Good news too is that the disassembly for access is similar to my recent R&R of the front engine coolant system, so it was well known and relatively straight forward.... including my diagonal wiggling to get the fan pack out.


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...8db583c88.jpeg
End of Day 1 and I haven’t even touched the alternator yet.

Just finished mine two nights ago, took roughly 192 hours. Mostly sleeping, working in my regular job, and waiting for parts (bolts right the first time, once for the incorrect connector, once for the correct connector). The actual job was fairly quick, especially the reinstallation which took minutes. Took out nothing but the airbox and the airflow ducting from below. The most time was taken assembling all of the stuff to solder a new connector in place. Probably 2 hours working time for all of it. Based on data from yesterday, alternator works great, no fade in my heat. Your heat is a different issue, especially with a 'pre-oiled' alternator.

I did torque my shoulder last week 'convincing' the original alternator to leave its place on the lower mount. Just another brick in the wall... Younger, stronger people around here were not available for this, but this seemed like a tradeoff between strength and tenacity.

Good luck with the rest of it, that upper bolt seems easily munged up with its position and head size. My torque wrench wouldn't go in the available area, so the torque values for these are probably 'notional' on most cars, including mine now.

2nd attempt- 2nd Day - and it’s out
 

Well,

Considering my first failure, a year ago, alot of the advice and experience above, all came true today.

Started late today so could only get 2 hours but the old oil covered alternator is finally out! That’s as far as I got today.

What a difference an impact wrench makes. Last year the long bottom bolt defeated me but this time, with the fan pack out, I could get my new impact gun onto the bolt head by the radiator to work it loose. Only weird thing was jury rigging a wrench on the rear nut from below to hold it as I worked the bolt head with the impact wrench.


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...646c2ae1b.jpeg

Then the unit rotated but wouldn’t come out of the bottom bracket, so bashed it out with the rubber mallet. Discovered a bush on the bottom rear bracket which as said above, had to be “tooled” back flush for new alternator to fit.


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...27e4903e3.jpeg


Had michaelh’s problem with disconnecting the wiring harness happened. Had to move the unit first forward for access and spray cleaned the 3 pin (2 wire) harness to wiggle it out using 2 screwdrivers one on either side.


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...5040e390d.jpeg


Noted Dale’s problem on different connectors but it looks good for me on my replacement Denso unit. Don’t have the ground cable on my 99MY for the alternator’s ground stud suppression module.


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...957df7114.jpeg

Back at it tomorrow.

My Duct scoop was missing and you can't buy them for love or money so I had to make one from scratch. Used 1mm coated steel, but it enabled me to better fashion the joint as you describe.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...e271e2fa74.jpg

Nice job, but I don't recognize any of those other parts either. Where's the greasy black 'protective' coating?

Getting there :)

You are lucky that the 'suppression module' on yours has either migrated somewhere else, or is missing. On my car it was ideally placed under the airbox, and removing its retaining bracket was quite the most 'meh' part of the job.

I used a ball joint splitter to move the bush back a tad. Saved faffing about with nuts, bolts, washers and the socket.


Irrelevant observation: it is now the 2nd of Unextrapolating.

Ha ha! The ‘other’ parts are coated with galvanizing primer plus epoxy mastic top coat.

I live in England where rust was invented during the industrial revolution!!

New alternator is in
 

2nd Attempt- Day 3 and the new alternator is in.


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...0e5f8b859.jpeg

Into reassembly now.


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...49896d613.jpeg
There were a lot of bits to go back in.

The worst part was refitting the C air duct behind the alternator.

Back at it tomorrow.... almost there.

Well done, particularly in your miserable heat....