Nice DIY, Laramie. If I ever decide to switch to a 180 t-stat, I will be doing it with this guide.

 

when i did mine i didn't think of leaving the hose attached, thats a good idea. and i like your work bench in the last pic. i just climb up on the brush guard and sit on the cross member in front of the radiator. i'm eventually going to make a bench that i can set on the shock towers and the brush guard but that'll be some time down the road. i was telling a friend of mine the other day that has a lift that he ought to take a reinforced piece of plywood and lay it on the arms for the lift so he can raise it just above the engine and lay on it to mess with the engine, but all his trucks sit a couple feet above stock.

 

I find it just as easy to pull the alternator. 2 9/16 bolts, 2 10mm nuts and 2 7mm nuts. You then have plenty of room.

 

i do, may not be necessary, but peace of mind

i didn't

 

You all prove my statement about the many different methods to change out a simple component.
Sure leaving the alternator on might make things cramped, but the way I do it, you should be in and out in either 2 15min sessions, or about 25-30 min. That's including time taken to grind off that tab.

Oh and sheriff, I took that idea from a picture I saw running around here quite awhile back..... lifted up 2500 CTD, with a Ford Ranger backed all the way up to the front bumper. That allowed who ever was working on it to get in the bed of the ranger, and allowed him to reach the engine bay.

 

Yes, but by having less room will slow you down. Especially if your gasket is stuck to the block and you have to scrape it off. The few extra minutes for the alternator removal will be easily made up. I tried to go the lazy route the first time and not pull the alternator. When it started to leak a few days later because I had coolant leaking, I decided to do it right and realized that it didn't take any longer.

The reality is that it is a poor design to have it sit where it does. They could have make it more accessible. Much like the silly distributor location!

 

well on the durangos with the 5.9 and 5.2 the dist. is easy to get to, its just the way the firewall was made. but, its also just as easy to remove the a/c compressor, and start to finish takes aroudn 30 mins. that was including dropping the lower rad. hose. and it keeps everything up top from getting drenched. when i do my therm, (next few weeks) ill take some pics of how i do it, our methods dont differ to much, other than where you just use an extension to go right at the housing, i unbol;t the compressor and move it out of the way, and since i dont have CC, i just unhook my throttle cable, and the undo the hose clamp, move the hose, then unbolt and remove the housing, and clean evcerything up, dry it out, then install the new therm, and install is reverse of removal. simple enough right?

 

Gonna e-mail this to my dad because he is flushing the cooling system and putting a new thermostat today w/o me. He needs all the help he can get!!!

 

not removing the ac or alt isnt the "lazy" way... just efficient...lol.

as far as rtv goes...hardly ever use it

and i have a custom step for working inside my engine bay.