It didn't take me long this morning to know something was a miss with my Cobra. I pull her out of the garage, click on the headlights, take off, and then at my first stop sign I flick the blinker and I notice: blink...... blink...... blink...... blink.... After driving a 5-liter Fox Mustang for nearly twenty years straight, I KNOW the cadence of the Mustang's blinkers and this morning the cadence is a little slower than normal. I zip out into traffic look down at the alt gauge and sure enough the gauge is pointing slightly south. I continue on my trip to work and a bit later I see the instrument panel lighting is a little dimmer, and the car doesn't seem to have the same zip when I throttle it. As I near my place of employment, my car's power is really down -- like a race horse running in four feet of water. I shut her off and hope she'll start when I leave work this afternoon. When I return, about 3PM, she does restart, and she gets me to the auto parts store and back home. The parts store's diagnosis: You're alternator is fading. Yea, I knew... no surprise; in fact I kind of expected something to happen. After all the odometer is showing 115K, and I haven't had a problem in the last 4 years except when an old battery died about two years ago.
Anyways, I had grabbed a part's store (Auto Zone) alternator and it was time to do the replacement. Two bolts, two cables and some wiggling and it's a done deal. My assessment: Alternator replacement is one of the easiest jobs you can do on a Fox car.
Now here are my questions: My factory alternator had a little plastic "belt guard" attached to the top of it. The Auto Zone replacement alternator doesn't. I took if off the original and tried to attach it to the new alternator, but the aluminum clip isn't able to be slipped into place.
-- Would a replacement factory-Ford alternator have that little plastic guard attached?
-- Do I need that little plastic guard? (I'm sure I don't, but it would be kind of nice to have it attached for originality purposes.)
(Note: Of course the [Cobra U/D] pulley on my original alternator will come off before I return the core.)
Now here's the oddest thing that has happened to me in a while when working on cars. I finish the alternator job; take a scan of the engine compartment to ensure all the tools are picked up/everything is in its place, and to admire my work. Then I give the hood that little
3-4 inch drop and "bam"...AND I hear the sound of glass shattering. I look down and I see the remains of my front driving light lens scattered on my garage floor. Apparently, the lens must have taken a hit from a rock and cracked on my drive home this afternoon, and the slam from the hood was enough make the lens come apart. But what strange timing it was for it to break -- just as I finish up one job I immediately have another. Oh well... time to order a new driving light...Patrick '93 Cobra