That should be it and I turned mine by hand, it took me longer to find the damn socket lol. I wonder if it’s the manufacturer that makes the difference, I got a cheapie from O’Reillys.. someone posted about having to heat it to loosen it, might be worth a shot but I didn’t personally have to.
Hey guys, I'm not sure if I should open another thread for this, but things didn't exactly turn out as planned. Please, would highly appreciate your advice on the following:
I managed to just squeeze it in there after clocking the alt as you guys suggested. I also had to cut down the long ass + stud on the alternator to keep it from hitting the metal coolant pipe and made sure to wrap the rubber cap of the O-ring and the PCM connection in electrical tape to stop them from possibly rubbing or shorting out against the pipe. Did have to guide the wires of PCM plug at an awkward 90 degree angle up against the coolant pipe (which may have kinked it?). Put it back together and started the engine. Idled it for 15 minutes, no crazy dash lights or 'check charging system'. Did some revs, engine seemed to run great at least.
So I took it out to my mechanic down the road the morning after to have my work checked. Driving there, for a split second I thought I smelt something electrical, went away in a second. Maybe I imagined it(?)
Then I noticed when switching on my headlights, all of sudden my dash light symbols for the headlights didn't turn on/appear. Meanwhile, headlights worked just fine.
I get to my mechanic's shop. They measure my charging system... and.... zero charge coming from the alternator, also "check charging system" warning comes back on. Mind you the serpentine belt was routed fine and doing its work.
So right now I'm thinking, could it be that I kinked the PCM control plug wire into the alt which cause a shortcut, causing the headlight dash light fuse to blow? When I was wrapping it with electrical tape at that angle one of the wires seemed scuffed but not egregiously exposed as far as I could tell.
Again, all advice is highly appreciated! Thank you