O RLY?!

I picked up an extremely inexpensive truck a few weeks ago to use for transporting large items.  I’ve always wanted to have a truck available for moving things since Abbey and I both own cars.  I don’t have any friends that drive trucks, so I figured I’d pick one up myself.

The alternator went out on it and it wasn’t worth paying somebody to replace it, so I decided to try it myself.  This was my first attempt at any serious mechanical work on a car and I emerged successful.  I purchased a rebuilt unit from Auto-Zone, removed the old alternator and installed the new one.  The only problem I encountered was swapping the pulleys between the two alternators.  All the reading I did online stated that an impact wrench was needed to remove the pulley.  Not fully knowing what an impact wrench was, I decided to try and remove it myself (how hard could it be?)  After about an hour of struggling, I decided whatever an impact wrench was, I probably needed it. I took both units back to Auto-Zone and they swapped the pulleys in a matter of seconds using (you guessed it) an impact wrench.  All the voltages checked out fine after installing the new alternator and the battery now charges properly.