I have a 96 Honda Civic CXI. (I love my car ) I am VERY new to working on cars, and replacing the alternator is my first "real" project. (I changed the spark plugs and did a compression test, but that's it)

So, it took me all weekend (laugh if you will!) but I almost did it. I got my old alternator out. I took it in to autozone, they confirmed it was bad, I bought the new alternator, fit it back through the chassis from under the car, bolted the mounting bracket back on and got the new alternator bolted on it, got the belt back on, everything hooked back up, etc.

The only problem now is I can NOT get that damn alternator belt tight. I have tried and tried pushing as hard as I can on the alternator away from the engine block (to the point I made my palms bleed actually), but it is still crazy loose. Like, I can twist the belt probably 125 degrees from the side. I'll mention, I am a pretty small female, and though I have a lot of endurance and can really push myself, I do have terribly weak upper body strength. (I had to use a metal pipe around my socket wrench as a ghetto breaker bar to break loose almost every bolt on the alternator). Furthermore, I have no one I can ask to help me tighten it, or anything like that. Nor do I know anyone in real life who knows anything about cars. I'm totally alone on this venture!


I was about to give up for good, but then I read somewhere that I can use a prybar, wedge it between the engine block and a sturdy part of the alternator holding, and use that to put tension on the belt. I also read that if I follow this approach, it really won't matter how strong I am. EDIT: I found this video demonstrating it see minute 4:00. I see now I had a wrong understanding of how this was done. This makes so much more sense!


Also - in terms of how tight the belt should be. Keep in mind, I have never even changed a belt before so I don't have a frame of reference on what is too tight or too loose. I have a repair manual, but the only thing it has are specs for the belt tensioner, which I don't have (I looked at autozone and they don't have any for rent, either). I was wondering, assuming the power steering belt and the other belt (A/C compressor belt?) are tensioned properly, can I use those as a "goal" on how tight I should make my alternator belt?


One last issue... I rented a torque wrench from autozone to make sure the bolts were torqued properly. The only problem is the torque wrench they gave me doesn't go high enough. (It goes up to 200 inch-pounds I believe, and the lock bolt and mounting nut should be 204 inch-pounds and 396 inch-pounds, respectively, according to my service manual. Well, the said 17 lbf-ft and 33 lbf-ft and that's what the conversion is. Here is the pic from the service manual: http://imgur.com/yT1UsZx). Without the torque wrench that goes high enough, how should I gauge how tight the bolts are?


Thanks for reading this thread. It's my final "hope" that I can do this. I have come so far, and really want to see it through!

 

If you're installing a new belt, set it up a little tight because it will stretch slightly when first used. Twisting a belt doesn't tell you how tight it is, what you want to do is press on the flat outside of the belt at a point halfway between two pulleys. It should move about half an inch when pressed with moderate force. If it is taut enough to make musical notes when you pluck it it is too tight. Generally you don't want to over-tighten belts because that causes unnecessary wear. If the belt is too loose, it will let you know it is slipping by making a lot of noise, especially in the case of the alternator belt it will squeal when the engine is first started in the morning. I'm sure you've heard neighbors cars do that, over and over again, having it happen once or twice doesn't do any damage. So do a test drive to break in the belt, then if it squeaks later just go back and tighten it a little more.

When you go to tighten the alternator belt, be sure to loosen all three bolts, the ones on the alternator and also the bolt that holds the curved slotted bracket to the engine. Put your wrench on the bolt that goes through the slot in the bracket to the alternator body and get ready to tighten it while you are prying with the bar in your other hand. Once that bolt has been tightened the alternator can't move and let the belt slacken, so then you would tighten the bracket to engine bolt and the bottom bolt without needing to keep prying.

It really isn't necessary to use a torque wrench on every bolt of a car, with a little experience it is possible to properly tighten by feel. Critical bolts like those inside the engine and those on the suspension which will lead to losing control of the car should they come loose need to be scientifically torqued, but general stuff like the alternator doesn't have to be exact.

Remember how hard you had to pull on the wrench to get them loose and when you tighten that same bolt, don't push quite as hard. Torque is just the length of the wrench (in feet or inches) multiplied by the force in pounds that your hand puts on the end. Calculate how much force that would be and imagine lifiting an object that weighs that much as you pull on the wrench.

 

I just wanted to say thank you for the reply. Yesterday after work I went home and prybar trick worked like a charm! I haven't put in the new alternator belt yet, because in order to get to it I need to take off the A/C compressor belt as well as the P/S pump belt. I was looking around and it seems like to take off the A/C compressor belt I need to remove the lower left engine mount. I'm a little worried about this because I'm not certain if I need to support the engine if I do this or not. In fact, any advice would be appreciated there. Either way - the alternator belt wasn't too worn. The P/S belt is in **** condition though and I need to change it. That'll be my next project


About not using the torque wrench. I think while I"m beginning I'm gonna have to rely on it a lot. I thought I had the alternator bolts on really snug the first time, and when I went to loosen them yesterday they came right off with ease. I think I need more perspective on what tight and loose is and then I can start going with my better judgement

Thanks for the response!!

 

You only have to take the A/C belt completely out of the car if you're going to put a new one on. To replace the alternator belt you would just take the A/C belt off of the pulley and let it stay trapped by the motor mount while you work on the alternator belt.

To take the motor mount off it is likely easier to take out the two bolts that hold it to the car frame rather than the one in the center. However, either or both of those options could be rusted and difficult to remove. The engine will not move more than about 1/4 inch when you take the mount off; there is no need to support it. The big mount at the top to the fender is responsible for holding the engine's weight up. The little mounts just prevent the engine from shifting around due to torque when you accelerate.

You may find it easier to remove the P/S pump first for access to the A/C pulleys. By remove I mean unbolt the pump and move it aside but don't disconnect the fluid lines.

 

Thanks a LOT for letting me know this! Luckily, my A/C belt looks like it's in great condition. The P/S belt however is super frayed, so I purchased a new one. I also bought a new alternator belt. Looks like I can just change those two guys without having to take the A/C belt entirely off!

Just one last question - so I know the for the alternator belt, to loosen it I had to move the alternator itself towards the engine mount. Similarly for the P/S pump belt, I need to pry the power steering pump towards the engine mount to loosen the belt and take it off. For the A/C belt - do I need to move the A/C compressor at all in order to loosen the belt? Or will loosening the necessary lock bolts loosen the belt enough that I can slip it off the pulleys?


Finally, one last question... last night I went to start the car after getting all the bolts tensioned, etc. I noticed the battery light was on on the dash! Now the weird thing is, that battery light never once came on before, even though the alternator was really bad. I put the battery on a charge overnight, it was pretty drained, and when I threw it in the car this morning, the battery light was gone, so I'm assuming it's just because the battery was very very discharged. My question is - why is it that when the alternator WASN'T working, that battery light never came on to warn me? (Even the times when the alternator was bad and the battery was too drained to start the car, that light never came on). But now for some reason, that battery light seems to be functioning? I should mention there are a couple things on the dash that are messed up - for example, my speedometer and odometer don't work, not sure if that's relevant.

 

A 1996 with non-working speedometer, and alternator will not always charge the battery, sounds like the fuse 15 problem. Basically there was a problem with the design of the car where some wires behind the engine can short out, blowing the fuse and cutting power to the alternator, speed sensor, and several other things that will not disable the car but will cause the check engine light to come on.

The battery light is controlled by the alternator to indicate a problem with that unit, it doesn't actually respond to the condition of the battery. Light should come on if you turn the key on but don't start. If it does not you probably need to do the fuse 15 repair, which is well written up all over the net.

A/C belt has a small idler pulley that pulls the belt tight without moving the compressor. To remove the belt, loosen (do not remove) the nut in the center of the small pulley, then turn the jack screw that goes down behind the small pulley counterclockwise.

 

Oh wow, very interesting. I will also say that the check engine light was on about a year and a half ago. This was long before I had decided to learn about cars, so I simply took it to the mechanic and they did something to fix it, though I never knew what.


About the speedometer - it's more like an intermittent thing. It works fine up until about, 30 mph, and then it just "sticks" there. Occasionally, if I'm up to 70mph or so, the speedometer will randomly start working again, but only for 30 seconds or so, then will drop back to 30 and stick. In this fuse 15 problem - I found this link Sparky's Answers: 1996 Honda Civic #15 Fuse Blown but when they speak of the speedometer not working - are they talking about it straight up not moving at all? Since mine "kind of" works, I wonder if it falls under this category.


Also - I had the alternator itself tested, and it was indeed bad. Is it possible that if an alternator is going bad, and this fuse is blown (thus power not getting to the alternator) that it could kind of speed up the process of the alternator dying completely?

 

That sounds like a different problem with the speedometer. If the sensor is not working it just stays at zero. Your problem could be as simple as the pointer needle rubbing on the dial face and getting physically stuck at 30. In this case though the odometer would continue to roll when the car is moving.