Ok, so this weekend im gettin ready to get my hands dirty and fix my Camaro. Heres what I know, I turned the car on, heard a pop realized i had no p/s shut her off, popped the hood found my belt floating free in my engine bay, realized my powersteering pump had a bolt snap (the bolt on theright of the pulley) and my alternator pulley spins freely (im told thats not supposed to spin so easily). Heres what my mechanic told me, my alternator was failing, it could be the bearing. He also surmised that my alternator was seizing.

Heres my plan of action. I am going to remove my alternator, take it to autozone have them test it to see if it is the problem, probably just buy a new one reguardless (unless i can salvage my old one). But heres my obstacle. The bolt broke in the back of the pulley meaning part of it is in the pump itself and the other is in the bracket. How do i go about getting the bolt out of the backet? can i reverse thread it or something? Im really goin out on a limb here kuz getting this car running is dire to basically my every day life.

How does that sound? Is that the right course of action?

 

no one can help me?

 

Hey, take a breather buddy, you should know by now that sometimes things don't get answered instantly on this forum. Here's some food for thought though:
It's probably a good plan to get the alternator tested, although mine spins freely, it has for over 2 years that I've owned the car. Typically if something has a bearing going out or is siezing up it will get harder to spin, so I don't quite know what your "mechanic" is thinking, but getting it tested won't hurt. Now, as far as getting the broken off bolt out that's going to be a bit harder. If I were you I'd see if I could drill a hole in the broken off bolt, tap it with left hand threads, get a left handed bolt and skrew it into the broken one and see if you can get it out. Some other people may have better ideas about how to get it out, but if you can do it, that way should work. Put some WD-40 or better yet PB Blaster or Aerocroil on the bolt to help get it out easier. Good luck buddy...

 

Yeah... Its just frustrating.. ive put tons into this car and is always breaks when i need it lol. Im beginning to feel it best to fix its problem right now and show it the door... I really want a carbbed car.. something less technical that i can figure out myself... This weekend im gonna take he alt off and bring it to Autozone and have em test it (anyone know if this cost anything?) While the alt is off what should i look for? I mean.. i dunno what would have broken a bolt.. musta been some crazy stress put on the poor thing.

What my mechanic said to me is that it could have seized up. Would that create enough power to break it off. The car still runs so i didnt mess anything up THAT badly... but i cant afford a mechanic and if i could get it to my mechanic he said hed fix the bolt problem since he had all that jazz off toreplace my opti and waterpump. But that would require a tow truck.. and i used our last AAA tow for the year when the ignition switch broke.

 

If the alternator were frozen, it wouldn't spin freely. A good alternator will spin freely as long asthere isno load on it. I am not sure what your mechanic is trying to tell you. As for the broken bolt, if the pump is not moving around, I would leave it alone, and just put on a new belt.

 

The pump pivots alil, my serp belt slid right off it, i was able to pull out my belt (its still in perfect condition) but yeah my p/s pump just hangs there.

 

Had my alternator tested, and its fine. So im going to take out the bolt,get a new one boltit in there and see what happens, if the new one sears i quit.

 

Ok, so got my p/s pump off to find that the only problem was that both the bolts in it has eaten the threads. so ive just gotta thread new holes.

 

Good luck, let us know how it goes!

Plus, now you know the satisfaction of working on your own car, who needs a mechanic!

 

lol i called my mechanic like every two seconds. Its harder than hell to get that p/s pump off tho... me my neighbor and my stepdad called it a night around 9 or 10 last night. We started at about 4-5. Today my mechanics going to lend me his thread driver and im gonna use a hela (dunno how to spell it) coil kit to thread new holes.