Originally posted by theman21@Aug 24 2004, 12:37 AM
Not to sound like an ass but the alternator is a pain in the ass if you ask me. I have done it twice on mine. This applies to the duratec engines. The shops say its a 2.5 hour job to do it. Where the location is on the duratec engine is in the rear bottom of the engine compartment. The hard part is getting it out for one, since you can't pull it straight out, and two getting it out without taking off the axel. It can be done but its not fun, my warning to you is that there a 18mm stud that likes to snap. You can't get a replacment from the dealer and its hard to find one at the junkyard. Ford says you have to improvise on this. My advice take your time and make sure this is the first bolt/stud to take out. Maybe spray it with some penatrating oil. Also when you do put one back in, put some antiseize on the bolts so that next time it will less likely to snap on you. If you don't feel up to the challenge have a shop do it. I would esitmate depending on how good your skillz and patience are it would take you around 3-4 hours. The rebuilt is relatively cheap, if you are doing this yourself and don't like pain either get a new one or a very reputable rebuilt one. I myself after going through 2 rebuilts, decided to get a new one since I didn't like doing it, let alone dealing with electrical issues when they do start failing. Oh and yea you can drive just on your battery, I wouldn't advise it, but when it does happen, depending on where you are at, role down your windows, shut off everything electrical(radio, ac, hopefully this doesn't happen at night) and find the nearest safe place you can keep your car to get it either towed or fixed. I wouldn't try to go more than 10 miles depending on your batteries condition before your car will start acting funky to point of stalling. Just some comments.
levi