GM alternator swap questions

Just how long now has it been...

that I've been using a 10 dollar universal adjustment arm cut down and affixed to one water pump bolt with no problems at all...

And you've been screwing around with this turnbuckle and heim joint and now yur bending stock brackets and using copper washers?

C'mon Jeff.... keep it simple and quit killin' yurself.... Besides, ain't cold out there?

(It was 79 and sunny here today... BTW
 
Man how to be mean :) that was one cold cut...

I suspect what you are seeing is trying to make one idea work, twice and then when that failed looking at what he could quickly cadge at Home Depot (or similar) and use what he had on hand.

I suspect he will be revisiting this again, when it is indeed warmer :grin:
 
It's fun.
For the record, I did try the standard Mr. Gasket universal upper bracket first, then the water pump bolt snapped off, thus the diversion. Now there's no good place to bolt an arm to so I "have" to improvise. When this fails, I'll try something else. And even though my mod failed in 10 weeks, that's 3,000 miles.:love:
I could have used (the now broken off) bracket for the Mr. Gasket arm too I guess but that's water under the bridge now.
 
Sorry but the turnbuckle is crap

Not engineered for your application. It will snap again and maybe leave you stranded. You need grade 8 hardware, and while I never count my time as valuable when working on our three Fiats, I don't like to re-do everything either. I'm with Tony on this one, if you go GM use one of the tried and true methods. Unfortunately that water pump has to come off to do that.

Chris
 
karhawk said:
Not engineered for your application. It will snap again and maybe leave you stranded. You need grade 8 hardware, and while I never count my time as valuable when working on our three Fiats, I don't like to re-do everything either. I'm with Tony on this one, if you go GM use one of the tried and true methods. Unfortunately that water pump has to come off to do that.

Chris
Click to expand...

When the water pump fails, THEN I'll fix that bolt. Apparently a tight pivot bolt is enough to hold proper tension, though obviously not recommended as the one and only means to achieve a tight belt. Now I have a tight pivot bolt and an improvised stop. Time will tell.
I'm surprised people get a good snug bracket out of that one lowly water pump bolt.
And I heartily agree, not the best solution, I'm certainly not promoting it or bragg'n, just reporting.
 
I tried to be NICE to him but that didn't work...

He still continues to beat himself up... So I tried this approach.

Apparently its not gonna work either!

HA!

He sure is a persistent SOB huh! I think I'll leave him alone as long as he thinks he's having fun. Maybe all that staring at the instrument panel wasn't such a bad idea now that I think of it.
 
:dead:
BTW
my X made me happy driving home after a pretty crappy day (birthday no less) Should have taken it off.
 
turnbuckle again

since I had it all torn apart, replaced water pump, which means I had a good bolt again, which means I could try the Mr. Gasket universal alternator upper mount. Geometry is wrong for it since I "had" to have an alternator with the different mounting points. So, back to the turnbuckle, Dan sent me some tank parts and I finally fitted it. Seems good to me. Only down side is I couldn't source a threaded rod for a turnbuckle (with one end in left handed threads) that was short enough, so it's just all right hand thread so you have to actually take an end off and turn it out or in, then reattach to adjust, which stinks but I think it's solid enough.
m60buckle.jpg

m60buckle2.jpg
 
Last edited:
Mmmmm Beefy!

Looks good. I would still be concerned about the strength of that bolt on the water pump.

If you could make a cardboard template of what it should be I could get one lasered out at the shop and then have them bend one up.

Save me the water pump so I can use that as a template for the mount side of it.

The arc is the most important element, if you could trace the arc of the hole in the upper ear of the alternator that would be the best way to get it correct.

Let me know. FYI, we are going down to the Gilmore Museum for the Spring Dustoff if you are free.

Karl
 
I'll get you the old water pump, works fine, just needs a busted bolt fixed. Ya know, I'm stupid so I'm thinking wouldn't the female end of eye bolt need to be made to except left hand thread, both are right hand so maybe that "jack screw" (thanks for the tip BTW!) wouldn't work anyway.
Spring Dust Off, my X won't be functional by then, at least probably not. I can't get away anyway, too many kids, too many jobs.
Karl, did you get my Facebook message on the 850 on Craigslist? My 17 year son thinks we should get it, fix it up and flip it. I'd just keep it though. Looks like a good deal, lots of dents though.
 
Black-Tooth said:
Looks drivable as well!

The dents are an easy fix with the repaint.
Click to expand...

I hope you're telling Karl to grab it. I would probably kill myself trying to keep up with another little needy Fiat.
Karl, buy it and remove the temptation from before me.
Man I'd love to have it though.
 
Yeah, IIRC those spherical rod ends are part of some linkage arms on M60 series main battle tanks, most likely accelerator or steering. In that application they were used with a bell-crank to change push/pull direction so there was no need for RH/LH threading.

Glad you were able to put them to some use:dance:, it would have been a shame for them to sit in my bolt bin for another 20 years collecting dust:) I'm sure The Uncle paid handsomely for them:nuts:
 
Thanks again Dan. They are just the ticket to allow me to keep using this alternator (and I think it's worth keeping). We'll see if the threads strip out of bolt or off the rod like the cheap one.
 
Late last night I checked the tank bracket. It had come apart. Too late to dive in very deep but it looks like the rod unscrewed itself since it didn't look broken or stripped. I had nuts on there as jam nuts tightened against the eye ends but it needs more apparently. Didn't think I had room for much more hardware on the rod but I'm going to cut another rod a bit longer, put lock washers on (or maybe some nylon lock nuts?) maybe some loc-tite. Will dive in tonight. Seriously considering just getting a alternator with the mounts clocked at 6 and 2 instead of 6 and 12, then I could just use the Mr. Gasket universal arm and be done with it. One more try....yeah, right, knowing me it'll be more like 20.

Hmmm, I don't know. Looking up at my own pictures I can't see how the rod could back itself out. I bet it stripped out either the rod or the end.
 
Dan Sarandrea (Phila) said:
Dude, are you saying that your X1/9 broke a part meant for a Main Battle Tank?:hammer::hypno::cry::huh2::drink:
Click to expand...

well, no, more like the mechanic is kinda dumb

Looks like the last few threads on the rod stripped out. I'm thinking the rod worked it's way up into one end and simply stripped out of the other when only a couple threads remained. New slightly longer rod and nylon lock nuts are going on in a minute
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top