Fitting a new Alternator

[TiG]

Anyone able to give me some useful practical tips or actual help to fit/source a new alternator/fan belt etc for a N reg 1.1 Classic Fiesta.

Cheers
TiG

[herulach]

Buy a haynes manual. They arent that difficult to fit (note, by not that difficult, it took me and housemate 12 hours to do it on a nissan primera mainly due to excessive fiddliness and lack of room in the engine bay) As for a source, look in the yellow pages, if you get a ford oem one you should be golden

[filbert]

Very easy to change, any motor factors should have one
Should even be cheap to buy from main dealer

[Jiff Lemon]

As filbert says, belt itself is very cheap from either main dealer or motor factors.

Slacken alternator adjustment bolt, Crack off the bottom bolt, then adjust alternator right back so you can remove the belt.
CHECK the new one looks the same length.
When adjusting the belt, if its a single V belt, you want it tight enough that you cannot turn the alternator fan without it trying to turn the engine over - NOT overlytight though (unless you want to be changing it again in a months time). Poly Vee belts (ribbed belts) go to the same sort of tightness, but with a little bit extra!

Remember it'll need re-adjusting after 200 miles or so.

Start it up, and check that you're getting around 14.5v at the battery with everything off, and more than 13.5v with headlamps, heated rear screen and heater blower on full.