Bit of a rant here, Agreed to help my brother (finance guy the "the smart one") My background is automotive and I have home shop that rivals many "pro"shops. I spend most of my days playing in the shop with my hot rods (American) and working on our heavy equip personal rigs, friends etc. I do it all from fab work to engine rebuilding (have a complete machine shop as I owned a auto parts and machine shop for many years) I agreed to change the alt out for him as the dealer wanted 1200 bucks to do the job including the alt. I put it up on the lift in my shop and got the job done for him, but I will say that what a pile of crap this car is. What a total joke!! Who in their right mind would put the alt where you have to pull the wheel, axile fuel lines loose and all kinds of crap to change a alt, what a joke!!! I would never!!! own such a royal pile of crap car. I have always disliked "euro" type cars, but this confirms what a pile of crap these cars are. Cheers to all!! ( 68 camaro pro touring, 650hp LS motor)

 

Well next time just tell your brother to take it to the dealer so you won't have to complain about doing it, simple as that.if you didn't like a "euro" type cars then maybe you shouldn't have touched a European car in the first place. You go ahead and work on your simple american cars and leave the European cars for other people.

 

lol He didn't have the 1200 to spend and I can wrench on the Euro stuff as good as the next guy and probably better then most. My point is the "engineering" that went into this alt location is a total joke!! I have sold millions in auto parts and I can tell most cars will go through at least one alt in its life (this car has 110,000 miles) and to put a alt where they put it is pure idiocy and if you can defend that you are right there with them. Part of good engineering is "simple" to fix common things and replacing a alt is nearly as common as dirt! cheers

 

I don't know if you noticed but there isn't that much room in the engine bay with that Yamaha v8 in it. Rather than make everything a lot tighter by putting the alternator up top I think it was good engineering to put it at the bottom. But the alternator isn't really common thing to go out on the v8s. I've probably replaced 5 v8 alternators the entire time that I've been working on volvos.

 

#7 and #8 spark plugs on a 94-03 F-body?? good luck trying to replace those!!

 

as we all know..every automotive manufacturer has engineering issues.I can make a list of the engineering WTF moments for american cars. nobody is perfect.

 

I guess I should have him help me do the plugs on my Thunderbird Supercoupe where you have to take most of the hard intercooler tubes off just to try and see where the plugs might be under it all and it's the stock system from the factory !!
Real happy about your Camaro but I'd still rather have my "import" RX-7 with the 454 chev (you want to talk about tight) that would likely eat your Camaro for lunch.

Now that I've slapped you in the face if you're a good mechanic doing something hard is a challenge and if you're good it's what makes you good. Anybody can do the easy stuff. All cars are packed as tight as they can be. The days of climbing into the engine bay of your car are gone unless you have a 60's vintage car and you can sit on a wheel well while doing plugs.


It was a hard job so you come in here and crap on the cars design because it wasn't a chey 350 with the alternator up on the top of the engine ???? Go back to your "Pro" shop and cry to one of your buddies.
"Part of good engineering is "simple" Before you try to sell that line of crap think of all the HIGHLY engineered parts you have in that Camaro. How much of it is still the good simple engineering GM did ???

 

Where else do you want them to put the alternator? Removing the axle isn't that hard. You put as much time signing up here to bitch about it as I do pulling the axle.