My alternator belt has been squealing like crazy, and belt dressing wasn't lasting more than 2 hours, so I finally went in there to tighten up my alternator... Well, sort of. I'm wrenching away, trying to figure out what's wrong, and it gets to the point that I'm using my right hand to pull the alternator towards the firewall and my left hand to tighten the adjustment bolt, thinking what a strange way it is to tighten down an alternator, when I feel the bracket that the bolt should be going through...

Apparently, if the alternator is only being held on by the adjustment bolt (you know, the one that is in the sliding bracket on top) then the bottom part doesn't like to stay in place... Silly honda technicians forgetting bolts like that, because it COULDN'T be the shop that did my swap... No, not the guys who apparently didn't tighten down my AC belt's pulley enough so that the bolt wouldn't back out and allow the pulley to fall into my engine bay, clanking around for 3 days before I located it and figured out how I could get it out from between my belts...

So, now that you've all got some backstory to this problem, and possibly a good laugh, or at least snicker, let's answer the question posed by the title. "What is the size of the alternator's bottom bolt?" As in, were I to go to home depot tomorrow, what size bolt would I been looking for? And please be as specific as possible. Or, at the very least, does anyone know if the bolt is the same between civics and integras? It's a 97 ITR engine, but the Acura dealership is on Oahu and I'm on Maui... If there is a Honda that shares that bolt, I can run to Island Honda and pray their parts department is open on Saturdays, and actually has something in stock the first time I go ask for it...

 

haha....the AC part of you story made me chuckle. Me and my buddies did the same thing when we did my head gasket. Except my bolt completely backed out in the middle of a race woith a 300zx. Boy was that some scary ****.

Here's your best bet. Call the acura dealership and get a part number for the bolt that you are looking for. Then call the honda dealership and ask for the same part except ask for a 99-00 Civic Si. Both has b series engines so most, if not all, of that stuff will match up. If the part numbers are the same go get your part. And parts departments here are open saturdays. Good luck.

 

Well, I went to honda, and ORDERED the bolt for a 99 SI, seeing as how, yet again, they fail to stock ANYTHING I might ever need... Should be here late next week, and then we'll finally have a definite answer.

Also dropped by home depot and picked up some long carriage bolts, gonna run one through for the time being and hope it doesn't break...