Okay, today we're going to replace the alternator, idler pulley, and tensioner in a 2004 Cadillac Escalade, 6.0 liter V8 vortec, Vin N Engine. (the 8th digit of your Vin is the engine code). This motor is typically seen in Escalades, Yukon Denalis, and some 2500 series Pickups.
For the Record, my truck is 11 years old, has 120,000 miles.
Refer to your vin for the particulars. This is not dramatically different from the 5.3 V8, although some of the parts may be different, the concepts are very similar.
Also, shout out to TheRykerDane on Youtube, who has a pretty decent video, of him doing this job on a Yukon Denali.
Also, shout out to ChrisFix and EricTheCarGuy on Youtube... they have some very nice videos out there.
Let me start with the parts I used.
Sold by: Amazon.com LLC
Sold by: Amazon.com LLC
Sold by: Amazon.com LLC
Sold by: Amazon.com LLC
That is the "bigger" Alternator, listed as the 145 Amp Alternator. Was a perfect drop in replacement for what I had as my original alternator. Some trucks have the "smaller" alternator in them.
I thought amazon had great prices on these parts. Most were cheaper than the "store" brands available at the usual Auto Parts Houses we're all familiar with. For Genuine AC. In my humble opinion, you can't beat it, and if it's wrong, amazon will take it back.
Alright, lets begin.
Step one is, remove your negative battery cable.
Step two is, get your beauty covers off.
Step one is, remove your negative battery cable.
Step two is, get your beauty covers off.
Okay, hood open, there's your engine. My "Vortec" Cover, the paint is wearing off, I see.... been a tough ten years, what can I say. Anyways, There's a bolt there in the middle. 8mm. Get a 1/4 inch drive and remove that bolt. Actually, if you just loosen it all the way, it sort of stays "trapped" in the cover, so don't kill yourself trying to get it "out" of the cover....
Once that bolt is out, tip up the front of that plastic cover, and then pull it towards you, it will pop out of a holder in the rear. No sweat.
Once that bolt is out, tip up the front of that plastic cover, and then pull it towards you, it will pop out of a holder in the rear. No sweat.
Now down on the Driver's side, there's 2 bolts that hold this cover on. Up top, it just slips over a stud or bolt. These bolts are down low. 8mm again. The wrench is on one in this picture, there is another one further towards the firewall. Remove both of those, and that beauty cover will come off.
Now, to get this air intake box off....
Loosen this screw here, over on the passenger side, where the air comes in... back it out like 3 or 4 turns. You don't have to take that clamp off, you just need to loosen it, to pull the hose off...
Do the same to this screw here, on the throttle body.... again, back it out 3 or 4 turns.
Now, you should be able to wiggle that around, and pull off those 2 ends. Underneath that air intake box, there is also a little plastic connector holding a radiator hose. Just pull it free from the airbox assembly, no biggie. And then you should be able to pull it out and set it aside.
With the airbox out of the way, we can finally see the alternator. Aha. There it is.
And your new one.....
Not to get ahead of ourselves, but, as you can see, it is identical to the old one....
Before you pull the old one, you might want to get the new one out of the box and do a "stare & compare", to make sure you have what you think you have. If you think you have the wrong thing, you might want to stop right here, and investigate....
Note, if you have the smaller alternator, there's nothing stopping you from putting the bigger one in. Just order the slightly longer serpentine belt, and you should be fine. At least, that's my understanding.
Okay, on the back of the alternator, we see a 4-conductor plug that is plugged in at like "11 O'Clock", up top. There is also a rubber boot there. The rubber boot will pull right off, and you will see the nut, holding the wire, like in the picture above. That is a 10mm. Take that off, and remove the wire.
Okay, wire is off. Now the plug you see, I'm pointing at it with the wrench. See how it's got that plastic tab there, extending down? Yeah. Pry that away from the alternator a little, and you can easily pull that plug. If your fingers are a little big like mine, use your handy little flat-blade screwdriver that you always have in your pocket....
Like so. Once those wires are off, just tuck them out of the way for a minute here.... Now then, the serpentine belt now has to come off. Get a 15mm wrench, put it on the tensioner, and pull clockwise. This will take the tension off the belt. With your free hand, slip the belt off the alternator pulley. Like so:
Now, when you release the tensioner, it is going to move a lot further than where you started, because there's no belt to "hold it back" from fully releasing, so be prepared for that...
I'm not going to spend a ton of time on that.... If you're attempting this repair, I'm guessing you've changed your serpentine belt at some point. If not, there are piles of decent Youtube videos that cover that sort of thing very nicely....
Okay. Belt is off the alternator. Yeah, hey, guess what?? We're finally going to pull that alternator! Don't panic, we're doing fine. The 2 15mm Bolts you're going to remove are visible in the picture above. They are "under" the alternator, like at 5 OClock and 7 O'Clock from the center pulley.
That's one of them. Crank those off with a 15mm socket. I thought they might be frozen, so I got out the 1/2 inch ratchet, but mine were not that bad. Once you get those out, the alternator will not just "pop" out, it will be sort of stuck there.....
So, we're going to get a prybar, and we're going to "persuade" the puppy to come out nicely. Don't get carried away on this. You will see, where those bolts were, there are some funky looking spacers of metal there, which I would guess is put in at the factory, to assure that the alternator pulley is running "in line" with the other pulleys. So, while you're playing with the Superbar, don't mess those up!! You're just prying on the alternator body itself, nothing else. And hey, we're not talking about the strength of Hercules here. A little prying, you will work this out, no problem. It will come. A little patience, some nice finesse, it will come out. Put the Stanazol and the Protein Powder away, okay? You're not gonna need it on this one.
I showed the picture before, of both alternators out.... this is the back side of each. You will note, the plug socket and the terminal post there are in identical locations. For my particular truck at least, that was the identical alternator.
So, get your new alternator in place. It will fit tight in the opening. A few light taps might help, but again, do NOT screw up those spacers! I would suggest, get it in so that ONE bolt hole lines up, get the bolt in there, and get it started, but do not tighten.
Now, with one bolt in, you can wiggle it back & forth, and get the other bolt hole to line up. Then get THAT bolt in there, and started. Once both bolts are in & started, go ahead and crank both of them in. The torque specs I found were like, 25 to 35 ft-lbs, depending on where you looked. I torqued them to 27 lbs, I drove the truck around for a few weeks, rechecked, everything is still tight. So, That's what I did. If you have different or better information share it in the thread on the forum, or the comments here.
Anyways, you do all that, you will end up with this: New alternator, in place, bolts in place.
Now, put a little dielectric grease in that plug, and plug it in to the new alternator. Then, with the lone wire, put it back on the post, and re-tighten the 10mm nut. Move the rubber boot back into place to cover it up, as before.
Now, the idler pulley. This is the pulley that is below the alternator drive pulley, and to the left, towards the passenger side. It's just bolted to the front of the block, with one 15mm bolt in the middle. This couldn't be simpler. Remove the bolt. Bolt in your new idler pulley. Torque to 27 lbs. Done.
The bearings in my old one did not feel great. this pulley should run smooth, and have no "back & forth" movement, or rumble-ations or vibrations when spun. So, I think that was tired out too. For the minor cost of the part, I'm glad I did it.
It's in a tough spot to see there, but that's the idler pulley, in the middle. We're standing on the passenger side of the truck, looking in, and down. Above the pulley, upper left of the photo, that's your new alternator, for some perspective....
Moving on to the tenstioner. This is held with 3 bolts. Like so:
That's the old one, once I got it out. That nut, in the middle of the black pulley, is what you crank on, to release the tension. this didn't spin real smooth either. And, I could easily move it by hand, so the tension spring was obviously weakened. On the new one, I could NOT move it by hand. So...
That's the new tensioner, in place. Again, there's not much to this. 15mm bolts. Crank out the 3 bolts. Put your new part in. Replace the bolts. Torque to 27 ft lbs.
Trying to give you a better look at that tensioner, and the 3 bolts that hold it. The pulley wheel will be at the "top", the 3 bolts are visible "below" it. Bolts to the front of your water pump.
Now, feed your new serpentine belt into place. There is a diagram, under the hood, of how it goes. Or, I might have said earlier, take a GOOD LOOK at it before you take it off. Take a few digital pics. Whatever.
I've never had much problem with serpentine belts, but some people seem confused by the geometry, and the running route the belt will take. Just take your time. Patience. Who cares, it's snowing out anyways, what else you got to do??? Take your time, you'll get it.
To me, it's easiest to route the whole thing except for the idler pulley, which is right in front of you. When you're ready, you should be able to crank the tensioner, and then slip the loose belt under the idler pulley, and boom, you're good, release tension.
You will probably notice, it takes a lot more force to operate the brand new tensioner. Haha, yeah, a new tensioner will do that. That's the idea. That's telling you the old one might have been getting weak.
So, after you put it all back together, You should be looking at something like this, up above. New alternator in place. Reassembly is just the reverse of everything we did.
Start your truck, and while it's running, take a real good look at that serpentine belt. It should be running straight & true and smooth and quiet. And some of your funny noises are probably gone too.... If not, shut the truck off right away, and investigate....
Now, could you reuse the old sepentine belt? Probably. But for my money, if it's been running under pressure from bad pulleys, a bad alternator, and incorrect tension, those issues could greatly shorten the life of that belt. My understanding is, a new serpentine in a new truck is 50,000 miles, for reference.
I don't know about you, but I personally do NOT need to be stranded out in the snow with a bad belt, snapped belt, whatever. For the price, on Amazon, that's a super nice belt, runs true & quiet, and inspires confidence. I do like the Gatorback Belts. I much prefer them to some other brands.
Now, if you inspect the old belt, and it looks real good, hey, that's your decision.... It's probably fine.
Anyways, Now you can go inside, and start thinking about what to do with all the cash you just saved..... Hmmm.......
Loosen this screw here, over on the passenger side, where the air comes in... back it out like 3 or 4 turns. You don't have to take that clamp off, you just need to loosen it, to pull the hose off...
Do the same to this screw here, on the throttle body.... again, back it out 3 or 4 turns.
Now, you should be able to wiggle that around, and pull off those 2 ends. Underneath that air intake box, there is also a little plastic connector holding a radiator hose. Just pull it free from the airbox assembly, no biggie. And then you should be able to pull it out and set it aside.
With the airbox out of the way, we can finally see the alternator. Aha. There it is.
And your new one.....
Not to get ahead of ourselves, but, as you can see, it is identical to the old one....
Before you pull the old one, you might want to get the new one out of the box and do a "stare & compare", to make sure you have what you think you have. If you think you have the wrong thing, you might want to stop right here, and investigate....
Note, if you have the smaller alternator, there's nothing stopping you from putting the bigger one in. Just order the slightly longer serpentine belt, and you should be fine. At least, that's my understanding.
Okay, on the back of the alternator, we see a 4-conductor plug that is plugged in at like "11 O'Clock", up top. There is also a rubber boot there. The rubber boot will pull right off, and you will see the nut, holding the wire, like in the picture above. That is a 10mm. Take that off, and remove the wire.
Okay, wire is off. Now the plug you see, I'm pointing at it with the wrench. See how it's got that plastic tab there, extending down? Yeah. Pry that away from the alternator a little, and you can easily pull that plug. If your fingers are a little big like mine, use your handy little flat-blade screwdriver that you always have in your pocket....
Like so. Once those wires are off, just tuck them out of the way for a minute here.... Now then, the serpentine belt now has to come off. Get a 15mm wrench, put it on the tensioner, and pull clockwise. This will take the tension off the belt. With your free hand, slip the belt off the alternator pulley. Like so:
Now, when you release the tensioner, it is going to move a lot further than where you started, because there's no belt to "hold it back" from fully releasing, so be prepared for that...
I'm not going to spend a ton of time on that.... If you're attempting this repair, I'm guessing you've changed your serpentine belt at some point. If not, there are piles of decent Youtube videos that cover that sort of thing very nicely....
Okay. Belt is off the alternator. Yeah, hey, guess what?? We're finally going to pull that alternator! Don't panic, we're doing fine. The 2 15mm Bolts you're going to remove are visible in the picture above. They are "under" the alternator, like at 5 OClock and 7 O'Clock from the center pulley.
That's one of them. Crank those off with a 15mm socket. I thought they might be frozen, so I got out the 1/2 inch ratchet, but mine were not that bad. Once you get those out, the alternator will not just "pop" out, it will be sort of stuck there.....
So, we're going to get a prybar, and we're going to "persuade" the puppy to come out nicely. Don't get carried away on this. You will see, where those bolts were, there are some funky looking spacers of metal there, which I would guess is put in at the factory, to assure that the alternator pulley is running "in line" with the other pulleys. So, while you're playing with the Superbar, don't mess those up!! You're just prying on the alternator body itself, nothing else. And hey, we're not talking about the strength of Hercules here. A little prying, you will work this out, no problem. It will come. A little patience, some nice finesse, it will come out. Put the Stanazol and the Protein Powder away, okay? You're not gonna need it on this one.
I showed the picture before, of both alternators out.... this is the back side of each. You will note, the plug socket and the terminal post there are in identical locations. For my particular truck at least, that was the identical alternator.
So, get your new alternator in place. It will fit tight in the opening. A few light taps might help, but again, do NOT screw up those spacers! I would suggest, get it in so that ONE bolt hole lines up, get the bolt in there, and get it started, but do not tighten.
Now, with one bolt in, you can wiggle it back & forth, and get the other bolt hole to line up. Then get THAT bolt in there, and started. Once both bolts are in & started, go ahead and crank both of them in. The torque specs I found were like, 25 to 35 ft-lbs, depending on where you looked. I torqued them to 27 lbs, I drove the truck around for a few weeks, rechecked, everything is still tight. So, That's what I did. If you have different or better information share it in the thread on the forum, or the comments here.
Anyways, you do all that, you will end up with this: New alternator, in place, bolts in place.
Now, put a little dielectric grease in that plug, and plug it in to the new alternator. Then, with the lone wire, put it back on the post, and re-tighten the 10mm nut. Move the rubber boot back into place to cover it up, as before.
Now, the idler pulley. This is the pulley that is below the alternator drive pulley, and to the left, towards the passenger side. It's just bolted to the front of the block, with one 15mm bolt in the middle. This couldn't be simpler. Remove the bolt. Bolt in your new idler pulley. Torque to 27 lbs. Done.
The bearings in my old one did not feel great. this pulley should run smooth, and have no "back & forth" movement, or rumble-ations or vibrations when spun. So, I think that was tired out too. For the minor cost of the part, I'm glad I did it.
It's in a tough spot to see there, but that's the idler pulley, in the middle. We're standing on the passenger side of the truck, looking in, and down. Above the pulley, upper left of the photo, that's your new alternator, for some perspective....
Moving on to the tenstioner. This is held with 3 bolts. Like so:
That's the old one, once I got it out. That nut, in the middle of the black pulley, is what you crank on, to release the tension. this didn't spin real smooth either. And, I could easily move it by hand, so the tension spring was obviously weakened. On the new one, I could NOT move it by hand. So...
That's the new tensioner, in place. Again, there's not much to this. 15mm bolts. Crank out the 3 bolts. Put your new part in. Replace the bolts. Torque to 27 ft lbs.
Trying to give you a better look at that tensioner, and the 3 bolts that hold it. The pulley wheel will be at the "top", the 3 bolts are visible "below" it. Bolts to the front of your water pump.
Now, feed your new serpentine belt into place. There is a diagram, under the hood, of how it goes. Or, I might have said earlier, take a GOOD LOOK at it before you take it off. Take a few digital pics. Whatever.
I've never had much problem with serpentine belts, but some people seem confused by the geometry, and the running route the belt will take. Just take your time. Patience. Who cares, it's snowing out anyways, what else you got to do??? Take your time, you'll get it.
To me, it's easiest to route the whole thing except for the idler pulley, which is right in front of you. When you're ready, you should be able to crank the tensioner, and then slip the loose belt under the idler pulley, and boom, you're good, release tension.
You will probably notice, it takes a lot more force to operate the brand new tensioner. Haha, yeah, a new tensioner will do that. That's the idea. That's telling you the old one might have been getting weak.
So, after you put it all back together, You should be looking at something like this, up above. New alternator in place. Reassembly is just the reverse of everything we did.
Start your truck, and while it's running, take a real good look at that serpentine belt. It should be running straight & true and smooth and quiet. And some of your funny noises are probably gone too.... If not, shut the truck off right away, and investigate....
Now, could you reuse the old sepentine belt? Probably. But for my money, if it's been running under pressure from bad pulleys, a bad alternator, and incorrect tension, those issues could greatly shorten the life of that belt. My understanding is, a new serpentine in a new truck is 50,000 miles, for reference.
I don't know about you, but I personally do NOT need to be stranded out in the snow with a bad belt, snapped belt, whatever. For the price, on Amazon, that's a super nice belt, runs true & quiet, and inspires confidence. I do like the Gatorback Belts. I much prefer them to some other brands.
Now, if you inspect the old belt, and it looks real good, hey, that's your decision.... It's probably fine.
Anyways, Now you can go inside, and start thinking about what to do with all the cash you just saved..... Hmmm.......
Great advice on how to replace an alternator! I have never worked on my car before and was able to follow these tips! I feel like a mechanic now. Hopefully this new part will fix the issues I was having with my electrical systems.
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