To put the radiator support in service position yes. Those two long bolts im talking about hold the bumper in in the front. They are behind the front lower side grills. They go up thru the bumper.

 

Thank you very much. Really appreciate the help.

 

Just another quick question. Since I am taking the front end off anyways, should I change my starter at the same time? Or do I have to take the front end off when I need to change the starter?

 

I was able to put the car in to service position, thanks the advice from dankhound. However I am stuck here. I took one tx50 bolt and one 13mm bolt off, the alternator does not seem to move. I can't see any other bolt on the alternator. Is there anything else I should take off?

 

Ok, I tapped on the alternator and it was loosened. But now I am trying to figure out should it come out from the front or the back? Coming from the front seems to be impossible without removing the two pipes in front of it; coming out from the back seems to have more obstacles although there is room for it to move back a little bit. Can anyone that has done this job before give me an idea on this? (also the plug seems to be pretty hard to be removed too). Thanks in advance.

 

Ive always taken it out the front. Is it possible to just lossen the brackets for the pipes and move them out of the way without disconnecting them?

 

Thanks Dankhound. Did you mean the bracket right in front of the alternator? I did that. But it did not help a lot. I will try again. When you pulled it out, did you have to rotate it somehow?

 

Ok, just took the bad boy out. Dankhound, I basically pulled harder to overcome the interference from the two steel pipes and really have to move the core a lot further than I original thought. The bumper bolt does not seem to be long enough for me in my case, maybe it is just because the orientation of the alternator when I took it out. The scary part to me just now was the flexible coolent pipe attached to the engine was squeezed by the alternator a lot when I pulled it out. Is it normal? Thanks a lot Dankhound, without your advice it would have taken me a lot longer and harder to even just take it out. I am trying to vision what should I do when I put it back. Regards.

 

It certainly is a tight fit. Seems like everything is on these cars. Just look how tight the alternator was once you removed all the bolts. Your down there looking for hidden bolts and stuff. Only to find out there are none. Ive always wanted to removed the bolts and start the car with the belt on to see what would happen. I bet the alternator wouldnt even move. As long as you didnt cut the coolant hose it will be fine.

 

Dankhound, this post is just to let you know that I have completed my project. Thank you very much for your help!

Putting the alternator back was actually easier than I thought (maybe because the experience I had when pulled it out). The only trick in my case was that I had to install the 13mm bolt before installing the tx50 bolt, I tried the other way around but it just did not work. It took me some time to figure that out but after that everything was fairly smooth ( I did the timing belt half year ago so I know what to do to put them back).

Again, thank you very much! I found out you had been helping a lot of other people too.

And thank to all the people that are helping other people in this great forum!