Hi everyone,

I'm struggling to remove the alternator from a 1994 VW Polo MK2F AAU. The bolt, which the alternator pivots around, touches the chassis wall and won't budge.

 

I've made a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUxVYt-CSO0

 

The Haynes manual suggests that the bolt should come out but I think its referring to the G40, and the bolt mounts the other way around?

Can someone offer a suggestion? 

 

Thank you,

On the right is a of the bracket is a plastic spacer, gently wedge it to the right as it may be catching the tip of the bolt and stopping the forwaed movement

 

Failing that you can support the engine on a jack and take the engine mount off with the alt

undo the 17mm head on the engine mount and use a jack to carefully raise the engine enough to clear the bolt...its supposed to be fitted the other way round 

On this setup i think its the right way round,

 

the bolt head puts clamping force on the slotted section and the thread at the other end grips ths tail of the bolt 

Thanks for the suggestions.

I've never lifted an engine using a jack. Is there a specific location that I should put it, or an area to avoid?

Some wood on a trolly jack under the sump, it is possible to cave a sump in if you lift to far and start taking body weight with you

 

You only need a small lift to clear it, youll need this skill to change the cambelt too as the lower pulley fouls the chassis when removing

Thanks, I'll give it a go.

 

Do you think just loosening the engine mount by the alternator is enough? or do I need to loosen the others too?

just that one is enough..take the bolts right out

Just an update.

I've taken the engine bolt right out (picture attached) and stuck a piece of wood under the oil sump. As I started to jack the engine up, it picked up the weight of the entire front end of the car - tyres were still grounded. I used a smaller piece of wood, just in case, (picture attached) and it still lifted the entire car. I didn't want to risk collapsing the oil sump, so I let the car down rather than jacking it up further.

 

The alternator bolt stayed stuck where it was.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks in advance.

Looks like you''ve still got the mount bolted to the engine (bolts 5 and 6 in this diagram. You should be ok with them in though. 

 

 

If you jack the engine, the mount (2) should go light on the rubber bush it leans on. Undo the two (rusty) bolts holding the mount onto the chassis leg then you should be able to jack the engine up enough to take the rubber bush out, and then slide the long bolt out of the alternator. 

 

Alternatively, you can undo the mount from the engine and separate it and the alternator on the bench. Just make sure the bolts and holes are nice and clean so you don't wreck the threads on the engine when you put the bolts back in. 

Thanks for all your advice. In the end, I just got my better half to put some weight down on that side of the body whilst the engine was jacked up. This managed to separate the mount from the body long enough to remove the bolt. I still needed to apply force to get the alternator out, it was wedged right in there.

 

Not looking forward to putting it back...

Thanks again :-)