1992 Town & Country, 3.3L V6 engine.
My alternator died the other day. I'm trying to remove the old one. I have the electrical connections all disconnected, and the alternator is unbolted from the engine.

My Haynes manual says to remove the alternator by raising the vehicle and pulling it out from underneath. It says in the caption for the removal image "If you remove it from the top you will have to take off the alternator bracket".

I tried taking it out of the top. I've unbolted a bolt at the top or the mounting bracket, another one that runs through both the side engine mount and the alternator bracket, and another short bolt tucked behind the power steering fluid hose, for a total of three. I can't budge the bracket, and can't find where else I would need to unbolt, and no amount of finagling will get the alternator out through the available space. After some more looking, it appears the bracket may curve toward the engine and go in between lots of stuff I can not easily move.

So I tried taking it out the bottom (after breaking my jack pin when the van shifted and then having to buy a jack I could use on the vehicle lift mount). The manual says to remove a reinforcement bracket, which I did. Then it says to pull the alternator out through the space between the firewall and the engine. I can't for the life of me get it out this way either. The catalytic converter and a heat shield are making it impossible to squeeze the alternator through. Plus, if I do get it out, it'll be just as difficult to get the new one up and in. As is, it took LOTS of flipping, wiggling, and squeezing just to get the alternator down to where it currently sits.

Any suggestions on how I can get this thing out? It's easy enough to remove and reattach the new one, if only I can get the darn thing out of the engine compartment.

 

I did it really easy by pulling the upper intake plenumn. It only took 15min to remove the plenumn which make removing the alternator really easy. While I was in there, I did spark plugs which was a snap without the intake in the way. Which is a lot safer than working under the vehicle on a crappy jack.

 

My manual seems to not help a lot with things that would actually be helpful. What do I have to do to remove the plenum? Is it just the series of bolts around the edge, or are there other ones I'd have to remove? Also, I assume there is a seal I would have to replace when I put the plenum back on. Is this in fact the case, and if so, what do I ask for at the parts store?

 

I was just flipping through the repair manual, and I found the plenum. Apparently I have to look at "air intake plenum" in the index, and not "intake plenum" or "plenum". It's about 50 degrees today, so probably a good time to go outside and see what I can do.

 

gasket needed (if you damage yours) is under $3. I didn't use a book to figure out how to remove a dozen or so bolts, couple electrical connects and some vacuum lines.

 

I got it all done. I somehow didn't even have to jumpstart it once the new alternator was in, even though the battery had lost maybe 99% of its juice.

On my plenum, there are only 5 bolts that hold it on, and a plethora of other things attached to it. Four bolts run along the front, with the leftmost bolt underneath the distributer, so that had to come off too. The fifth is connected to a backet in back. I didn't fully disconnect the air intake tube (from the air filter) as it was tied to several things with cable ties. I was able to move the plenum enough to easily slide the alternator out and the new one in, and also took the (great!) advice of changing the spark plugs while I had the chance. Looks to me like the spark plugs have probably never been changed, and 170,000 miles is a long way to go for a set of plugs. The were all fairly decimated in one way or another. I also replaced the gasket for good measure. It was very brittle, and fused to the metal. At first I though there wasn't even one in there because it blended in so well.

Put it all back together, started it. let it run for maybe 20 minutes in the driveway to charge the battery back up, and it's good as gold.

 

good deal