Following the tech section on perrin pulley installation I ran into a problem. The bolt of doom. Getting this thing off is a _____. Yes, the lower alternator bolt. Oh, we were able to move it, just the wrong way. It's tilted forward instead of back and now I can't get a socket on there to loosen it. I'm no mechanic, however I do see a few possibilities. The actual alternator pully itself, can it be removed easily? I'm thinking that I can pull that sucker off, move the alternator to the correct position, and resume belt installation. My poor toaster has been sitting on the jack all night and she looks sad.

 

if you want to remove the lower alternator bolt, remove your bumper and the windshield washer reservoir and you will have a straight shot at the bolt. use an impact gun with an extension. i had to do this when i removed my alternator. the bolt was on just as tight if not tighter than the crank pulley was.

 

roger that!

 

Ran into this when I put in my supercharger, that alternator pivot bolt is specced at 40 ft-lbs, Mine must have been over 120, I would have been able to tell if I could have fit a torque wrench on. I ended up shoving the windshield washer reservoir out of the way, putting a breaker bar on it, and then a 30" section of pipe over the end of the breaker bar for extra leverage. The bolt head was already pretty chewed by this point, but I did manage to pop it loose and remove. I just had to replace it with a new bolt from the hardware store when I re-installed. As for the alternator pulley, you need either an impact wrench or the special toyota tool.

As a side note, the Perrin pulley went in at the same time as the SC, and it was a piece of cake, came loose on the first pull. Yeah, that alternator bolt was the hardest and most time consuming part of the entire install.

 

Pulling the bumper off worked like a charm. Got the bolt loose with a torque wrench and 20 minutes later Angel was purring on the open road.

 

awesome, im glad everything worked out for you.

 

Another Scionlife success story!

Congrats Iatecricket! The alternator bolt was my biggest headache when I installed my pulley.

 

Just put the perrin pulley in today and my alternator bolt also was on pretty tight. I just used a 3' aluminum tube over the end of the rachet and it came off easy.

Didn't notice much of a difference in performance, but I don't get on the gas much. I did it to see if there is any mpg gains. If not I'll go back to stock and sell the pulley for some mpg mods.

 

It's doubtful you'll notice any MPG gains unless you do a lot of stop and go driving. The pulley really only helps during acceleration by reducing rotational weight. Your car should accelerate faster and if you have the AC on, you will not feel as much drag from it.