Alternator swivel bolt and nut trouble

[Ryan Cowper]

Hey everybody, I went to replace my alternator yesterday and found that the alternator swivel bolt (the one that passes through the fuel filter bracket and into a nut) was spinning but not loosening. I eventually pulled off the alternator/fuel filter bracket as one and discovered my problem! The alternator swivel bolt had misthreaded through the nut. I assume that the nut must have been attached to the bracket in some way, given the two stripped looking protrusions located on either side of the nut on the bracket? I replaced the stripped nut but when I tried to feed the swivel bolt through the bracket again I realized there was no possible way I could get it tight without getting a wrench on that rear nut. So, I attached the alternator to the bracket outside the truck then reinstalled the bracket and alternator together. What a pain in the butt! Has anyone else run into this issue? I sure don't want to take off my fuel filter bracket every time I need to remove my alternator.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

What you could do is (UGH!) remove them again and spot weld the nut to the bracket. That would be a close approximation to how it was done at the factory. When you do weld to the nut, leave the bolt threaded through the nut. I've been told that the threads can distort otherwise and you'll have trouble getting the bolt threaded in. I don't know if it's true,but I always do it that way just in case.

 

[Ryan Cowper]

I was afraid of that. Guess I'll put that job on the back burner for now. It seems to be my luck that for every one thing I fix, two more come up along the way. At least my batteries are charging again! Hopefully it will be a while before I need to take my newly designed, all in one, fuel filter bracket and alternator off again.

 

[raydav]

The fuel filter was put on the engine for assembly reasons. I got the filters on both my IDI and 01 PSD off the engines years ago. Huge change in maintenance accessibility.