Alternator installed

At first, things went well and as described by many sources.  Wrenching the tensioner to slack the serpentine belt.  Unthreading the belt off the pullies and accessories.  Finding all the electrical connections in the way and struggling with the AC connector.  Located AC compressor's bracket and removed the three bolts alone the oil pan and the three bolts for the AC condenser was next, but actually putting a wrench on the lone bolt in the rear location was tight, it required a quarter inch socket wrench and a long 13mm socket.  However, I had achieved clearing the AC compressor away and moved to the two bolts for the alternator.  It was hard to back out the alternator from the lower support of the bracket.  The two flanges of the lower part of the alternator was sleeved and could have been intended to put tension on the lower bracket to keep it secure due to varying widths of similar vehicles this model alternator was designed to fit.  

The alternator should have dropped off easily as it did from the upper bolt position, but that was the claim from sources.  My situation was that rust had built up and kept the sleeve locked in place.  However, I rigorously wiggled it side to side managed to loosened it to slip off.

The real challenge was to take the path out of the chassis and the majority of sources would never actually demonstrate this claimed procedure.  The most popular tips online was based on the instructions published from Chrysler and that seemed to have meant that models up to 2010 maybe.

In my case, things like the the type of AC condenser and power steering cooler and chassis configuration had changed slightly over subsequent years from 2008.  

My intended goal was to pull the alternator out from the wheel well side of the Patriot and with the AC compressor pulled as far down and back towards the middle as it could go, I given it the try.  Quickly, I learned the truth, alternator could never sneak past the gap in the side of the engine bay.  The bumper support area just above the repositioned AC compressor still cut off the path.  Further proof was that the body of the alternator body was clearly too big to fit between any part of this area due to the bracket of the alternator protruding far enough to be in the way.  

Short of removing the alternator support, which was never listed as a method, but a moment after pushing the alternator back up to its starting position to rethink the attempt again.  I had then noticed something odd about the AC compressor's position, it seemed to have room more room to move in either direction.  I ended pulling the AC compressor towards the wheel well side and the alternator was able to revolve down towards the oil filter direction.  There was one source that mentioned removal of the oil filter mount and filter, but I had originally discounted this solution.  I suppose the results may vary always and I had lucked out discovering this direction was far easier.

It didn't take long to bring the new alternator up the way the same way the old one came down from.  Moments later and I had the new alternator up on the bracket and waiting for the bolts.  Not long after, the bolts were tightened in, connections were carefully attached and the plastic protector was snapped in place.  

The AC compressor follow right after and the bracket for it was bolted under.  The AC connector was reattached and the pulley for the alternator, but then I had the notion about that old pulley.

I had decided to installed a new alternator pulley since the original one was looking filthy.  However, I soon was greeted with an abrupted slap sound upon start up the engine.  I had then turned off the engine to quickly inspect what I knew had happened, a dropped belts immediately upon starting the engine.  I had inspected and could not discover the reason for it and only then more carefully re-threaded the belt.  Someone could say I might have carelessly not looked at some point and that would explain the alignment issue the first time, but the second and third were carefully checked by putting a hand on each wheels and pulley to verify the alignment.  Again and again the belt slapped when it came off the pullies.  After the third time, I went back to the original pulley and after cleaning it carefully and checking to make sure it was still in usable shape, it was wrenched back in.  Then, all was back to normal again.  

The engine started up and I let it idle for a few minutes with no issues.  The new question was, "Is it possible to make a belt pulley that bad? ".  By the way, that was a Gates brand pulley and funny thing was that the original pulley that came with the Patriot was made in Canada and so were the Gates pulley.