Wow! That Turned-Out Much Better Than Expected!

 Shortly after leaving home, just in time to be on time to an appointment, a dreaded idiot-light popped on to my car's dashboard.  It was the red battery light, which has meant that I've lost my alternator the last few times it's happened.  I turned off the lights and fan to conserve the battery and pressed on.

After my appointment, I headed home with much trepidation: The car could literally die at any point on the way home.  I might make it home, which would save me a tow and hours of delay.

On the drive home, I mused that a new alternator would cost maybe $500 to have replaced.  The steering was also on the fritz--sometimes it worked okay for a bit and then not at all for a while.  Another $500.  I decided to give the car a look under the hood to see how hard it might be to change the alternator.  I had done a couple of alternator installations myself, but have also paid to have the totally buried one on my BMW changed.  A look under the hood showed me a completely missing belt that drove the alternator and what had to be the power steering compressor!

I looked up how to do the job and it seemed pretty straight-forward.  I decided to replace the missing belt and the other one, which was only for the AC.  The AC one was in the back and you put it on by clamping a block onto the drive shaft pulley and then manually turning the shaft, forcing the belt into place. I realized quickly that the car needed to be put into neutral.  Once I got the belt into place, to my dismay, it was off by one slot on the AC pulley!  The gadget to force the belt on, would not work in reverse.  I found a piece of Tygon tubing and trapped it between the belt and the AC pulley.  Once I ran it through the contact part of the upper pulley, the belt got into the right grooves.  The remaining belt had a way of loosening one of the pulleys.  Then you just add the belt and re-tension.

I gave the car a start and the idiot lights were all off and the steering worked perfectly!

Added:  Before I did anything, I disconnected the battery and put the charger on it.  It went from almost completely dead to almost 50% (the charger has an analyzer built in) by the time I was ready to give the car a start.