Water Pump Bolt to Alternator Upper Mount Bracket & belt tension adjustment

[spacecruisers]

thanks for the photos, those are perfect. i took a look at the fuel pulsation damper, and didn't see any signs of leaking....can it still fail without leaking? Just want to make sure before i plop down $90 for the FPD and gaskets.

I can't quite put my finger on the smell... its a fuel smell but it almost has a little bit of a "burnt" twinge. Not fresh-out-of-the-gas-pump-like. I did notice that under load/high RPM's the smell gets worse. I first noticed it from inside the passenger area driving home when climbing hills. I also noticed when i was inspecting the FPD while idling there was some white-ish smoke coming up so i got underneath and looked. I couldn't quite tell but it appear to be coming out from around the exhaust manifold somewhere. ill see if i can get it captured on video or photo later tonight.

[Burntboot]

When sizing bolts, the diameter measurement refers to the shaft diameter of the bolt, length is measured from under the head to the bolt tip.

In this case you should be looking for something on the order of M8x40

Pitch is 1.25 (sometimes referred to as "Japanese thread") and will hold true for most of the bolts on the vehicle.

Japanese hardware has reduced head sizes as compared to generic and much of the generic stuff will be 1.5 thread pitch (think GM)
An M8 Japanese bolt will have a head size of 12mm, the generic equivalent will be 13mm.
(M10 hardware has a more exaggerated difference, as the wrench size is 14mm vs 17mm)

If only generic is available, as long as the pitch is 1.25 it'll work just fine.
Whenever possible, I try to keep all replacement nuts/bolts with the reduced head sizes, mostly to simplify future repairs (fewer wrenches required)
BB

[spacecruisers]

hey there, just wanted to update and say you had it spot on. good info on bolt sizes. i picked up an M8x40 bolt from home depot (13mm) and installed the new belts and tightened the bolt on. worked perfectly!

[AnotherUser]

Started getting a loud squeaking noise and found the tension belt tightening bolt that should be connected to the alternator just hanging there:



What kind of bolt is used to hold this on to the alternator? It looks like the bolt broke off, as it is still stuck in the alternator bracket. Is the alternator bracket threaded for a bolt, or is it just a bolt going all the way through to a nut? Any ideas on how to fix this stuck bolt in the alternator?

[johnnyvanbone]

the hole in the alt is threaded it would be best to take it off it should be very tight if it was put in right maybe get out with plyer try to loosen rest of bracket be four taking off. good luck.

[Ian R.]

That bolt should have a lock-washer on it. The bolt should spin freely until it contacts the pump bracket, then it gets torqued to 29 ft lbs. Once torqued the bracket should not move freely. It can be moved for alignment reasons (as you have the leverage to so), but you should avoid moving it more than necessary. Once the alternator is mounted it's not a bad idea to retorque.

Your suspicions are correct (that bolt is not the right one (too long), missing the washer, or perhaps the threads on the block are messed up with crud/whatever). This is an important bolt as it applies pressure to seal a major coolant port. This is the port that passes through the block, through the timing cover, and into the water pump area. If the bolt fails to apply the required pressure you could be asking for a blown gasket between the block and the timing cover (not a fun one to replace). To get an idea of how things go together here, CLICK HERE and scroll down to the middle of that blog entry. Tim

This blog was super helpful. In my case one of the two long water pump bolts sheared while I was replacing the water pump gasket. What a head ache!

I tried an easy out once, but given the bolts position and that it was recessed made it difficult. I snapped the tip for the east out . So got a dremel with a diamond tip grinder and slowing worked through it. I ended up tacking off the timing cover, timing chain, and timing case. I got really lucky that there 1/2” of bolt left once I had the timing case off.

From now one I’ll be putting anti seize on these anytime i remove them.