Ok my 15yr old got the alternator out in an hour and a bit. The only thing that stumped him was when he removed the main mounting bolt last thing, the alternator wouldn't come down towards him. I thought the 2 brackets might have been tight and we tapped it a piece of wood and a hammer but no good.
So I got under the car and pushed the alternator upwards and it came out of the brackets and then through a gap and out the bottom.
Next Steve started to dismantle the alternator. It was fairly gunged up and some of the Phillips heads need tapping to free them. I showed him how impact drives are used. I think the bolts would have come loose by tapping a screwdriver, since we barely hit the impact. Anyway stopped when we got the brush holder off and one of the brushes was worn down signif. So took it to Bill Buckle's. The parts guy asked for the original Jap vin, not the import numbers assigned when brought n to Aus. Went home found the original frame number and rang it through - will be here in the morning.!! Wow!!
So there was some correlation between the Import listings (which did not list the part) and the local listing which did. So he was able to match up the right part. I imagine we'll have it all back in the car tomorrow night. All up a couple of hours or learning for my son and I'm very confident, no more charging light coming on.
Before we started, many threads were saying too hard, exchange it etc. Our experience has been the exact opposite, even deciding to dismantle the alternator itself was simple. Mind you we took the alternator out the bottom with the car up on stands. Think we saved a few hundred $$.
