and then you can pop the bushes out. To my surprise it seems a previous
owner has fitted polly bushes instead of the original bushes, and they're
still in perfect nick......
From reading on various forums it seems this change from original
rubber bushes to harder polly bushes is to cure an inherent problem
with alternators on the M3's S14 engine. The engine likes to vibrate
a lot especially when your driving arse out of it (as all M3's should be).
And this makes the alternator with the standard bushes vibrate a lot
too, which can snap the adjuster bracket and leave you without a
working alternator. So the polly bushes stiffen things up a bit and
makes life a little easier for the adjuster bracket.
At least thats my understanding of it, no doubt I've probably got it
arseways as usual.
With all the bushes checked and the casings cleaned up it was time to
nail it all back together and hope for once that you don't end up with
bits left over.
First up the 2 little studs that poke through the back of the casing to
attach the power leads to, making sure the little inner plastic insulators
are in place so that the studs can't arc off the casing, spark, fire, boom,
tears.......
pop it into the rear casing......
and pop the outer insulator back on securing it with the two little nuts.
Also the little suppressor dude goes back on......
then the stator (outer bit) and rotor (inner bit) sits down into the casing.
Rotor may need a little tap to get the small bearing the other end of
the shaft back into it's little dome in the casing......
and then finally the front casing pops on (making sure you've aligned the
3 markings you've made on the casings before stripping). Then the
4 main outer bolts are refitted and tightened to hold the casings together
and finally the 4 inner screws that hold that little plate behind the front bearing
tight to the casing are refitted.
When all thats done the brush pack can be slotted back in (softly, softly).....
and the earth lead reconnected........
followed by all the bits that make up the front pulley section......
and voila!.......
After this it was hooked up to our state of the art, mobile, water cooled,
alternator test bed to check it was charging........
engine running and everything electrical turned on and bingo 14 volts
at the battery. Didn't even need to use the fire extinguisher, how
professional is that?
And thats about it for now. Depending on how whacked I get
on pain killers this evening I hope to have the next bit up
tomorrow.
Till then.......
owner has fitted polly bushes instead of the original bushes, and they're
still in perfect nick......
From reading on various forums it seems this change from original
rubber bushes to harder polly bushes is to cure an inherent problem
with alternators on the M3's S14 engine. The engine likes to vibrate
a lot especially when your driving arse out of it (as all M3's should be).
And this makes the alternator with the standard bushes vibrate a lot
too, which can snap the adjuster bracket and leave you without a
working alternator. So the polly bushes stiffen things up a bit and
makes life a little easier for the adjuster bracket.
At least thats my understanding of it, no doubt I've probably got it
arseways as usual.
With all the bushes checked and the casings cleaned up it was time to
nail it all back together and hope for once that you don't end up with
bits left over.
First up the 2 little studs that poke through the back of the casing to
attach the power leads to, making sure the little inner plastic insulators
are in place so that the studs can't arc off the casing, spark, fire, boom,
tears.......
pop it into the rear casing......
and pop the outer insulator back on securing it with the two little nuts.
Also the little suppressor dude goes back on......
then the stator (outer bit) and rotor (inner bit) sits down into the casing.
Rotor may need a little tap to get the small bearing the other end of
the shaft back into it's little dome in the casing......
and then finally the front casing pops on (making sure you've aligned the
3 markings you've made on the casings before stripping). Then the
4 main outer bolts are refitted and tightened to hold the casings together
and finally the 4 inner screws that hold that little plate behind the front bearing
tight to the casing are refitted.
When all thats done the brush pack can be slotted back in (softly, softly).....
and the earth lead reconnected........
followed by all the bits that make up the front pulley section......
and voila!.......
After this it was hooked up to our state of the art, mobile, water cooled,
alternator test bed to check it was charging........
engine running and everything electrical turned on and bingo 14 volts
at the battery. Didn't even need to use the fire extinguisher, how
professional is that?
And thats about it for now. Depending on how whacked I get
on pain killers this evening I hope to have the next bit up
tomorrow.
Till then.......
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