Hello everyone!

My 91 5.0L e150 is giving me trouble again! Last week after being jump started and driven for 30min I revved it in park and the charging indicator snapped all the way from slightly above the 0 point to D (discharge) after doing this twice the engine shut off and a cloud of smoke shot up from under the hood! One of the fuse links had blown out. I had it towed to a local shop and they repaired the wire and also repaired a short on the alternator. So a week went by of driving and then the radio started turning on and off especially when I turned on the heater fan. So I drove back to the repair shop and they tested my batter and determined that I had a bad cell (with a hand held tester) Eventually the van died at the repair shop. So I got a new battery and the charging indicator in the van pointed slightly left of center towards D. So I drove back again to the repair shop and they tested the system and said that the alternator was bad, there tester said that the system was only putting out 12V and should be 14V. Turning on the lights on the van or fan causes the charging gage to wiggle to the left once and it remains on the Discharge side.

Sorry for the long description... I don't want to spend a lot on the vehicle and just wanted to know if for sure if this is a BAD alternator or if there could be other issues and also how difficult is it to change out an alternator yourself. I have a van with the automatic belt tensioner and according to the autozone manuals there is some special tool that is needed to relieve the tension, however they dont explain it. Autozone Once you remove the serpentine belt from the alternator is there some tool that has to be put in place on the tensioner? or can you just remove the 2 bolts and pull the alternator out?

Thanks and sorry for the long post!