Clocking A 3G? Help!

[Gary Lewis]

Well, my picture was WRONG.  That is not where I'm trying to pull it apart.  Here's a new pic that shows as far as I can get the front case half off the windings, and it appears to be hung pretty much where the arrow is.  I can pry it farther apart on the left or right but the other side closes up.

I've heated it, hit it with the little ball peen hammer, and tapped the shaft several times, to no avail.  I'm going to PB Blast it again and move on to the wiring of the PDB, but will come back and try it again from time to time.

[Tarheel Blue]

Yup, same symptoms and frustrations. If you take Jim’s advice to take off the pulley and smack the shaft, please put the nut back on first!
I ended up supporting the front case and let the rest hang down below and even put a 24” piece of W12x50 on the nut to provide constant weight. 3-4 days of spraying and tapping.
Heard a LOUD noise one night while sleeping and lo and behold, I had a separated 3G!

[Gary Lewis]

Don't worry, Dad taught me to ALWAYS put the nut on before hitting a bolt or shaft.  So I've been doing that, to no avail.

But your idea of constant weight is a good one, so how 'bout this?  Don't know how heavy that chuck of steel is, but it is HEAVY!

[Tarheel Blue]

That will certainly work well.

[Gary Lewis]

I hope so.  I have tools nearby so I can heat it up, hammer on it, etc several times a day.

[BigBrother-84]

«By time and toil we sever
What strength and rage could never.»

«Patience and length of time will still
Much more than force and rage fulfill.»

Jean de La Fontaine

[Gary Lewis]

Cool!  But I'm intrigued - surely he wrote in French but it still rhymes in English?

[BigBrother-84]

Long story short, a rat get out of soil between the lion’s legs.  But the lion is a King so he decides to let the rat go.
Later, the lion falls in some nets, and despite raging and roaring, he cannot escape.
The little rat comes back, gnaws the ropes and delivers the lion.

In the original French version, even the final moral is in the two last phrases, you need the last four lines to get rhymes:

Sire Rat accourut, et fit tant par ses dents (the rat comes back and gnaws so hard)
Qu'une maille rongée emporta tout l'ouvrage. (That a cut rope destroyed the whole mesh)
Patience et longueur de temps (Patience and length of time)
Font plus que force ni que rage. (are better than roaring and rage)

Since the moral of the story stands in the last two lines, English translations made the two last lines rhyme together.

In French, just saying the moral has no rhymes.
Funnily, I prefer the English way!

[mat in tn]

YOU HEARD IT POP? dang! you must be a light sleeper.

[Tarheel Blue]

I am a light sleeper, but when a 100lb piece of I-beam falls on to a steel top work bench and then on to the floor, it didn’t sound like a POP.

[Tarheel Blue]

Has that alternator separated yet?

[Gary Lewis]

Nope.  I've PB Blasted it many, many times.  Heated it more than I think prudent.  And banged on it time and time again, but it refuses to come apart.

The installation of the subwoofer is going slowly due to other things in our lives at the moment, but when the time to install the alternator finally comes I think it'll go back in the way it was.  I'll just have to remove it to be able to get to the releases on the connectors.

[Tarheel Blue]

Once you do get back to it, keep this in mind.
There are three locations of friction that come into play.
1. The outer race of the back bearing to the back case boss
2. The windings body to the front case
3. The inner race of the front bearing to the shaft

You only need two of the three spots to have a lower coefficient of friction so to speak.
Determining which two is probably impossible, but I only bring this up to point out that if the weight on the shaft is not producing results, perhaps that’s the tightest grip. Maybe force/ efforts need to be applied between the windings and the front case. Wedge it open slowly moving around the entire circumference in small increments.

[Gary Lewis]

I've used a large screwdriver to try and get the windings to separate from the front case half.  If I twist to the right of the arrow in the pic the distance to the left decreases.  And vice versa.  And if I twist right at the arrow I can't get it to move.

I've saturated the area between the two with PB Blaster, heated, banged, twisted - to no avail.  Will keep trying when I get back to it, but I'm open to other suggestions.

[grumpin]

Years ago I helped someone pulling a tranny from an Olds Toronado, if I'm remembering correctly the torque converter would get stuck on those contraptions. I'm remembering the tranny was off and the bellhousing and transmission were separated.

He had tried several ways to get it out and it wouldn't budge.

I finally had him hold it up off the floor and I used an air hammer on a block of wood on the side of the bellhousing and hit it, it fell right out.

Don't know if you could set something up or not but a thought.

Edit, correction, typo.

[Tarheel Blue]

On the back case is an aluminum dust cover that is typically lightly pressed into the bore. If you’re able to remove that, you now have just enough of the outer race of the back bearing to use a socket to tap the bearing and armature out. Tap on bearing/ pry on case, tap on bearing/ pry on case.
It’ll come.

In my experience, the back bearing is never really tight in the case.

[Gary Lewis]

Hadn’t thought of that. Thanks!

[Haystack]

I did a 3g swap on my thunderbird a few years ago, and I had to rotate the case. I only remember taking out the three long bolts and twisting it, I didn't touch the pulley, and I don't remember hitting anything.

I did that with the first junkyard one for mock up, and then again with a new parts store one. It was really quick and easy.

[Gary Lewis]

I wish mine was that easy.  I am surprised but pleased that one from a junk yard was that easy.  I'll keep working on this one.

[Gary Lewis]

Finally gave up today and put the alternator back together w/o getting it re-clocked.  It just wouldn't budge.