Hi Everyone

I just installed an Alta Pulley at home and have one little problem. My hood won't latch on the pass side. I used a regular three arm puller instead of the special tool made for pulley removal. I knew that a regular puller would wreck the pulley but had no idea it would tear it apart, but I digress. I think my problem comes from torquing on the puller so hard. One of the puller arms was resting on the support for the hood latch mechanism. I tried adjusting the latch bolts in every possible position but nothing helps. Does anyone have any other ideas of what could be going on?

Thanks
Greg

 

Pictures would help to diagnose your problem.

I hope you didn't bend the supercharger output shaft or do something to the bearings or rotor alignment by using the generic puller. It would have definitely been safer to rent the correct puller, but this is obviously too little too late.

My only advice so far on your bonnet closing issue is to closely examine the differences between the driver side and passenger side for any obvious bending of the latching mechanism. Worst case is you will have to get a new latch from the dealership, and eat the cost.

Good luck,
Ryan

 

Hi

I can clarify a bit. I have eyeballed and measured both latches. Both sides appear to be identical. What I can't measure is the relationship between the latch and the loop on the hood that mates with it in the closed position. I was hoping there was some other way to get these to match up besides trial and error. I am assuming at this point that the support tower for the latch has moved (but it seems like a pretty sturdy structure).

Ryan - you mention your concerns about damage to the supercharger during pulley removal. The people at Alta told me that a regular puller would work fine (but would damage the old pulley). Since they are not easy to reuse I was not concerned about damaging the pulley. I think the force on the pulley during removal was pretty much 90 degrees to the shaft just as with the P and D puller (at least I hope it was, everything works well so far).

Greg

 

It's not likely that you did any damage to the subframe, it's very very strong. I'm also glad to hear that ALTA has faith in a standard puller, so I guess there shouldn't be a problem there either.

I think trial-and-error may be your best bet, unfortunately. The way things fit together isn't alway an exact science....the MINI still is British

 

>> What I can't measure is the relationship between the latch and the loop on the hood that mates
>> with it in the closed position.
>>
>>I was hoping there was some other way to get these to match up besides trial and error.

Here's what you do:

Get some plasticine clay, play-do or silly-putty and put a big ball on both
latch parts that are attached to the frame.

Then, lightly close the hood so that the upper loop makes dents in the clay.

Then you can compare the two for alignment, and see which way you have to go.

Maybe you bent the upper loop the first time you closed the hood.

 

Hi Guys

Problem solved. I did kind of what you suggested Trippy, but used carpenter's colored chalk dust on the latches. Both sides were exactly the same contact point so I knew something else must be going on. The problem was that I can be pretty dimwitted some of the time, the locking latch was stuck, I freed it up and now the problem is solved. Sorry to waste the bandwith.

But I would like to encourage others to do their own pulleys. Randy's instructions posted here are very clear, but I would probably get the correct puller next time.

Greg