Altanator Replacement - post
If you have it up in the air its a peice of cake.. get a large pry bar and pry the motor against the firewall to create some space.. That is how I do it everytime. SLides right out.
Another way to do it is...(i just did this yesterday)... Take off the front drivers tire...take off the dust shield near the crank pulley.... take out the long bolt off the alternator...pry the alternator off of the mount..take off the mount(2 bolts 14mm) slide it out thru where the crank pulley is... installation is the reverse... Took me about 3 hours but i had a frozen bolt...so if its your first time..itll take 1-2 hours..
Not sure about the 2nd-gens, but on the first-gen CRXs, it's easiest to go out the bottom with it. You have to turn the alternator a few different ways, but eventually it will just come right out. And then you'll wonder what you did wrong all those OTHER times you were turning it every which way. It's almost a Rubik's cube, in terms of difficulty. When you DO solve it, chances are you'll have no idea how!
Wait! This is by far the least agrivating way to do it. Just remove the bolt from the top right (driver's side) motormount. Slide a jack under the motor first. When the bolt is out of the car use the jack to lift or lower the engine to give you the clearance to slide the alternator out. Time spent: 10 minutes.
As long as you do not have metal to metal contact with the Oil Pan, then it can be safely done. The main thing you want to make sure of, is that you put the largest amount of force out towards the side of the oil pan, rather than in the center. One little trick that we used to do with this situation (we have since used the cherry picker to hold the engine), is go to a flower store (yes, a flower store), and pick up a 10"x10"x5" (or so) piece of that "Flower foam" that they put in the bottom of vases or fake flower pots to hold the flower stems. Also, while you are out and about, pick up some glue (elmers) and a piece of plywood or other type of wood you can find that is about the same size as the chunk of foam you just got. Now, glue the foam to the piece of wood, and now you have a nice little holder for the oil pan. Place this (wood side facing the jack) on your jack, and use it to lift the engine with the oil pan. We used to use this type of foam, cause it wwas not only cheap, but it was dense enough that it would not compact all the way to the wood, but it is soft enough to support the engine with a much greater "footprint" than just a couple of little pints from the jack. Granted, the foam may not last longer than one or two times of doing this, but it is a cheap and easy DIY way of making sure that you do not hurt the oil pan. Basically, the whole theory, is that it distributes the weight of the engine over a much larger area, and in doing so, it helps to keep the oil pan from getting damaged.
Take off the bracket that holds the alternator.....take off the drivers side splashshield....slides right out!