ok,
i have changed alternators on cars b4, but I have never changed one on my eclipse.

i know where it is located, but do i have to take the timing cover and everything off of it to get to it, or can i get at it from the bottom. it looked as if there was about 3 bolts or so holding it on. am i right about that?

tia.

You have 2 bolts holding it on. The one at the bottom that pivots the thing and the one that holds the weird fitting at top. I had to undo my intake manifold and move it to the side a little to get mine out. I read some people undoing the motor mounts but that's sounds way harder IMO.

Thats one way to do it, but heres what i did. You need to remove the alt belt by loosening the bottom bolt, and the top adjuster bolt. Disconnect the wiring to the alt (be sure to take off neg battery cable first!!) Now you can fanagle some sockets and whatnot to get all the top and bottom bolts out. Once those are out, you can get the alternator loose( you may have to wiggle it around to get it out of the bottom bracket), then take off the 3 bolts holding on the one section of the alternator bracket, its located on the timing belt side of the engine. Once the 3 bolts are off, you can remove that bracket. Now you need a floor jack and a piece of wood to put on the jack to jack up the motor using the oil pan (so as not to damage the pan). Put just enough lift on the engine to get the stress off of the side passenger motor mount. Take off the 2 nuts and 1 bolt on the side motor mount, timing belt side,then take out the 1 through bolt that bolts the mount to the frame, then remove the mount. Then raise the engine to get you enough clearance to pull out the alternator. You will see that the axle is somewhat in the way to fully remove the alt, so you have to raise up the motor to get it out. I usually just let the alt rest on the axle till i get the motor up high enough to get the clearance to pull the alt out. Its really not that hard this way, and you only need to remove the passenger wheel, that alt bracket, and the side motor mount. I have never done it like venger, by removeing the manifold, so i cant say if that would be easier or not...it may be..either way, you will have to remove something..

I dont remember what I did, but I know no timing belt cover etc or manidolf was needed to mess with. I removed the PS/AC belt and just got to it from there, from underneath the car.

i did it just like xtremeRS and it wasnt too bad (thanks to all the support form this board!! :) ). i had removed the intake manifold for cleaning a couple weeks beforehand and jacking up the motor is MUCH easier. i didnt need to remove any brackets though, i just undid the alt., put support on the motor with the jack, removed the bolt that runs horozontally through the motor mount, jacked the motor up a bit, lifted out the alt., put the new one down there, lowered the motor and re-installed the motor mount bolt, and then installed the new alt.

ONE IMPORTANT TIP: use the factory jack that comes w/ the spare tire to lift up the motor, and after the motor mount bolt is removed, count the number of revelations it takes to get enough clearance and do the same number in reverese when you lowoer it. otherwise it will take you forever to get the motor level again (you cant see into the bolt hole well enough to line it up visually). of course, if you remove the whole mount you dont have to worry about this. i couldnt get the other bolts on the mount to come off, so thats why i did it the way i did.

i was driving home today, and about 35 feet from my house my gauges started jumping around like crazy, and then they just quit working, then would do it again, and my SRS light came on also b4 this stuff started happening.

i guess that my alternator just ate my battery didnt it?

Battery may be ok. It's just drained. Same thing happened to me on the interstate. I looked over and my EGT's were 1600 and I almost shit myself. Luckily the gauge was just wacked out because of the alt. and battery. After you change the alt. try and put a full charge on the battery and see if it takes it. Mine would not take a charge so I had to buy a new one. But my alt. wasn't putting out juice most of the time because of the loose connection. Are you sure it's bad? Check that black connector on the driver's side of the alt. and see if it's loose or not making a good connection.

If you drove around without an alternator for a little while (gauges whack out, headlights get dim, etc.) you probably discharged the battery. Our alternators are NOT strong enough to bring a discharged battery back to full capacity. It will probably run OK, but will kill the battery sooner.

Whenever you fully discharge a battery, you're supposed to put it on a 24 hour trickle charger before putting a load on it again.