engine shroud and alternator on a /6, removal in the car Options

[krk]

Folks,

Today, I'm taking advantage of the weather and trying to get to the alternator in my /6 -- which is apparently dead. Anyway, i have shop manuals which, and this is unusual, are almost useless for this.

The carbs and manifolds are out. All shroud bolts (that I can find) are out.

The shop manual thinks I can remove the shroud -- but there are "issues". for example, there is a wiring thing that goes through roughly the center of the shroud. (hopefully there
are detachable ends behind it somehow).

Are there tricks at this stage that I should be aware of? I found the secret bold behind the distributor, and the other two secret bolts accessed under the car at the back. Did I miss something?

Just taking a break -- almost time to go back at it. Any BTDT appreciated of course!

kim.

[krk]

Alrighty then.

First, I have a new alternator. $129 w/core. Old one was burnt out. They swapped the new one into the fan assembly as part of the deal -- took all of 7 minutes and I'm back in business.

So the dangerous part starts now. I figured, hey, as long as I'm in there.... Ok, so not quite -- I'd be happy to just put the sucker back together (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) and see if it runs. But I took the fan shroud off completely, mostly to tease Gint, but also to get a look underneath for a visual inspection. I think I've got two or three issues to contend with.

First the shroud itself is cracked -- looks like a PO tried to force it out and fractured the fiberglass. I'll clean it off tonight and see what the repair looks like. (doesn't look all that hard) I'll post pics of that later.

I have two possibly more serious issues to ask about.

The first is what appears to be an oil leak on the top of the engine. The front two bolts on top of the case appear to have reasonably fresh oil on them. (It's not completely fresh, and the engine hasn't run for any length of time in a couple of months, so it's a little hard to say) The pic from the drivers side shows the top two bolts, and on to the case just above the cylinders.

It may be nothing (there was an oil leak on top of the engine a while ago as one of the oil lines was not tight enough) but I got'sta ask.

kim.