1 hour ago, unofix said:

Alternator failure almost 5 years to the day since I replaced it last.

On the 29th December 2020, I had to replace the alternator on my daughters Kuga. It was a re-manufactured unit but has been fine until Christmas Eve when all hell broke loose and the instrument cluster was like a a Christmas tree.

So today after some investigation I've discovered when the engine RPM exceeds 1500 the alternator starts throwing out between 16 and 18 volts and at idle only 11.5V It looks like the voltage regulator (inside the alternator) has lost the plot.

Tomorrow I'll have to start the mammoth task of taking have the engine bay to pieces just to get the alternator out. I'm not happy !  

Is it the same Kuga where the subframe rotted and wheel went in a different direction to the other 3? 

1 hour ago, iantt said:

Is it the same Kuga where the

That's the one 👍

Which is why we are now looking for a replacement vehicle.

I bought it new around the 20th December 2010 so it's always been in the family. Sadly it's no longer reliable as a main car and probably time to say good bye. If I change the alternator we can probably sell it or even just keep it for running around the farm.

I hate the fact that I need to disconnect the fuel lines and the remove the diesel fuel filter just to be able to even see the alternator 🙁

2 hours ago, anon said:

Can you change the regulator in situ?

Sadly not. It's actually inside of the alternator. Probably quicker just to replace the whole thing albeit replacement regulators can be bought for around £30

21 hours ago, unofix said:

Tomorrow I'll have to start the mammoth task of taking have the engine bay to pieces just to get the alternator out. I'm not happy !  

Well tomorrow is here !!

I'm not going to win a prize for the fastest removal of an alternator from a Mk1 Kuga. It took a full 3 hours, mind that includes wasting about ³/₄ of an hour trying to figure out why the two 10mm nuts holding the fuel filter on were not unscrewing. They are down a very long recess and you have to do it just by feel. Eventually I realised the problem was the stud was so long it was stopping my 10mm socket from actually making full contact with the nut. Once I used a long reach 10mm socket the problem was solved.

I've come to the conclusion Ford had a competition to see how many different types of fastener they could use and just how many sizes they could use. With the bolt on the belt tensioner seeming to not be metric !!

So tomorrow I need to go and buy an alternator and put it all back together ....... and hope it solves the problem 🤔

Bon courage! If an alternator takes that long to remove (as it once did for me on a BMW,) then swapping out the whole thing is definitely the right thing to do. I hope you have somewhere warm to work. Ferguson tractors came apart with two spanners. What price progress?

The word tomorrow has lost all meaning by this point in the year.  I'm sure we've had 3x today's today and the clock says it's not even 3pm yet!  I really need to find another past-time that doesn't rely on other people's cars breaking down.

3 minutes ago, anon said:

I hope you have somewhere warm to work.

I have a typical modern single garage, so small that if you ever did put a car in it, then you would have to get out through the sunroof 🤣

I just have the car parked as close to the garage door as possible so that I can stand mostly inside. Have you noticed these types of job never happen in August ?

Of course not. Batteries get cold in the Winter and need a lot more charging to stir cold engnes so that is when the alternator chooses to give up, the difficulty of removal being inversely related to temperature!

Hurlit Packup have turned the battery off on my laptop as a punishment for not buying a new one.

All the cells are fine and over 3.7 volts

A counterfeit replacement is on order. The old cells will be used in one of my other gadgets.

After months of Google telling me my storage is nearly full, I've started deleting photos backed up on Google.  Spent about an hour both yesterday and today deleting photos.  Yet the storage is still showing exactly the same.  Am I missing something here? 

I have turned off the sync/backup on my phone, so that the pictures remain on the phone, and only get deleted from the backup.  I'm wondering whether that has anything to do with it?

....and so the fun and games continue with the alternator.

At 10 o'clock I started to fit the replacement and things were going well. At 10:30AM it was time to refit the belt, and at 3:00PM I gave up !!

Even with the belt tensioner fully wound back there is no way on this earth the belt will go back on. I even took the top two bolts back out of the alternator so it could pivot down to give a few millimetres more slack but all to no avail 🙁 Now the thing is I've done this job before (5 years ago) and I do remember it being a real problem to get the belt back on, but somehow last time I managed.

I've just ordered a 15mm offset ring spanner for the belt tensioner to see if that will give me better access to get the belt over the idler pulley.

Obviously you have checked that the pulley diameter is the same. If it isn't a stretch belt, you might need to pull the lower bolt as well.

Doesn't the tensioner have a hole to put a dowel in so locking the tensioner then able to put belt on? 

3 hours ago, iantt said:

Doesn't the tensioner have a hole to put a dowel in so locking the tensioner then able to put belt on?

Now if it has, I've not noticed but it would certainly help !! 👍

You can only see about one third of the tensioner pulley and there is in sufficient space in front of it to get a socket & ratchet on. I've been using an open ended spanner which is almost impossible to hold and apply enough force.

Number one task in the morning is to check and see if there is a hole to put a lock pin in. 

4 hours ago, anon said:

checked that the pulley diameter is the same. If it isn't a stretch belt, you might need to pull the lower bolt as well.

Yes, checked and rechecked everything is the exact same size. It's not a stretch belt, it would probably be easier if it were 😂

It is very cold at the moment with working conditions of around 5^oC so I did wonder if that is adding to the belt being difficult. I may take if fully off (again) and put it in a dish very hot water before having another try. One way or another, it 'has' got to go back on.

From what I remember , used a combi spanner then another one hooked over to extend the leverage

Fantastic bit of information @iantt

I'd never have looked there for the hole.  The belt is just going to drop straight on in the morning 🤣

I'll quickly make up the locking pin first thing. Thanks for that picture 👍

Been quite a few years since I've done alternators on kugas. Used to be quite a regular job . To be fair it's been a few years since I've done any repair work involving spanners 😂

Easy life now with new vehicles. 

5 minutes ago, iantt said:

Easy life now with new vehicles. 

I bet you think you've retired 🤣

1 hour ago, unofix said:

I bet you think you've retired 🤣

Yeah, easy life, no Saturday working unlike proper garages.  Been here 9 years in Jan. And paid better than if I was on the spanners getting dirty. Just another 5 years to retirement properly. 

This is the aux belt set-up and tensioner that is fitted on my daughters Kuga. This is not the actual car just a picture form YouTube

I'm not sure there is a locking pin position on this. 🤔

Should be same type of tensioner I think. 

I kept the pin from a new tensioner to use in these many years ago, still have it now.  Hated doing it though as it means fingers very close to the sprung tensioner and the potential slipping spanner.  I generally just used the linked spanner technique from above (may not be space on a Kuga) and hooked the loose end back over the alternator pulley.  Fingers well away from the tensioner area.