I watched a fellow install an alternator in an 82 300D yesterday. The job required serious bending of the tensioner rod. Is there a way to do this without pulling the lower radiator hose? Does the threaded rod not come off the upper attachment bolt?

Sixto
87 300D

Depends. On my '82 240, I had to remove the other bracket that is bolted to the block. One of the bolts came out from the back, but there wasn't enough clearance to get it out. When I finally got the alt out, I used a different bolt, and installed from the front, double nutting the back, so it can't work it's way out.
I did not remove any hoses.
But, what a pain.
Most of the "L" adjuster bolts are bent at the end.

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83 SD

84 CD

if you remove the belt and allow the bolt the adjuster is on to go to the full out travel you should have just enough room to get the adjuster bolt rod out of the adjuster nut, turn it 90 degrees and remove it from the front. That being said, I had to bend my adjuster bolt rod on my 300CD to remove it. I then removed the bracket and fixed the ears on the bracket so it held the adjuster in the correct position. If yours has been over tightened in the past it may not be possible to get it out the way it was intended.

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1982 300CD Turbo (Otis, "ups & downs") parts for sale
2003 TJ with Hemi (to go anywhere, quickly) sold
2001 Excursion Powerstroke (to go dependably)
1970 Mustang 428SCJ (to go fast)
1962 Corvette LS1 (to go in style)
2001 Schwinn Grape Krate 10spd (if all else fails)

On my 84, the threaded rod is brazed to the bolt running front to back under the tensioner bracket. I remove it by turning the cooling fan to allow the threaded rod to fit between the blades.

I don't recall even thinking about removing the lower hose. Seems I needed to loosen the bracket holding the a/c line.... or maybe that was for something else.

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83 300d - 390k

yes thats right, once turned you pull it out the front between the blades. I forgot to mention that

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1982 300CD Turbo (Otis, "ups & downs") parts for sale
2003 TJ with Hemi (to go anywhere, quickly) sold
2001 Excursion Powerstroke (to go dependably)
1970 Mustang 428SCJ (to go fast)
1962 Corvette LS1 (to go in style)
2001 Schwinn Grape Krate 10spd (if all else fails)

I'm not even thinking about the fan because it was out of they way in this case.

It surprises me that there's no way to install the upper bolt with the tensioning rod aligned with the bracket. You have to bend the tensioning rod uless the lower hose is off.

Sixto
87 300D

I guess we're at the "picture is worth a thousand words" stage. I don't bend my tensioning rod to remove this bolt. As LutzTD mentioned, you may need to bend it to pull the threaded rod out from the bracket and readjust the ears. This has nothing to do with the radiator hose.

Once free from the bracket, the threaded rod should swivel around the axis of the bolt. Perhaps this is what is bringing the radiator hose into play? The threaded rod will swivel downward from its own weight....

Perhaps there was a change between '82 & '84 that is causing me not to "see" the problem.

I've attached a few pictures of a spare bracket. 1st is upside down but shows the position of the threaded rod, bolt and spacer that goes through the alternator and the attachment bolt that fixes the bracket to the block. Best I can do without the car being here to take more pics.

Attached Thumbnails

       

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83 300d - 390k

Now I get it - you release the rod completely from the nut (alternator all the way towards the block) then pull out the bolt. In this case, the nut retaining tab was bent down and the nut was on the rod. There's no way to insert the bolt and have the nut slot into the bracket in a single step.

Sixto
87 300D