How do I change the alternator on my 1986 corvette?

1 I've helped my mechanic brother do this, but didn't want to take up an answer slot from a true mechanic. Forgive my terminology if I don't have it exactly right. I just have this picture in my head of how we did it.

The tension is on the top bolt on the tension slider (might not be right word here, but you should recognize the piece). You have to loosen up the top bolt on the belt's tension slider. After you change out the alternator and get the lower bolt in, put in the top bolt on the top tension slider and push the alternator until you get the tension in the belt where you want it (very tight) and then tighten the bolt down.

You might need another set of hands on this. My two little cents.

2 Thanks for the good answers. What I ended up doing was this: At kragens I picked up a breaker bar. This allowed me to move the tensioner and the belt just falls off, nice and easy.

The alternator is mounted by 3 bolts, all easy to reach and remove. I took the alternator to a junk yard, they put it on a test machine and all it could generate was 8 volts. So that was my problem.

The junk yard gave me an old alternator that tested perfectly, so I just bolted that back in, use the breaker bar to put the drive belt back on, and except for the dead battery, I was almost done. I jump started the engine, let it run for a while to bring the battery back up (to 13. 8-14.0 volts), and off I went.

I now have a battery tender connected to the battery overnight to finish the charging, and then I am good to go. A real easy job--if you have a breaker bar, the right sockets, and jumper cables. Thanks for the help to all.

3 There should only be two bolts on the alternator. One on the ytop to adjust the tension and one on the bottom which secures the alternator to the block. Be sure to disconnect the battery before beginning this operation or sparks will fly if you touch the hot wire on the alternator.Be sure to have the battery checked also, many an alternator has been changed due to a bad battery.

Be careful of the location of your tension device, it could get caught on other wires and damage them when adding or removing tension. Do not put the gorilla pull on the new belt. Take and tighten it drive around the block then come back and re-tighten it after it has run some.

This will prevent that squealing of the belt if it does not have a auto-tension device on it. Hope this helps.

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