Saturn Repair: Electrical problem, saturn wagon, voltage spikes

Question
Ken,

I have a 93 Saturn wagon. The battery is not charging.
If I charge up the battery the car runs fine.
If I start the car and disconnect the battery the car dies so I believe that I have a bad generator.

Is there an easy way to get the generator out to test it?
My local Saturn dealer closed and it's an hour drive to the next one.
If this isn't to hard I have a nephew who is starting to work on cars,(a senior in HS) but he has heard that it is very difficult to remove generators from this vehicle.

Thanks for any info that you can supply.

Tim Lynch

Answer
Hi well if the car dies when u disconnedt hte battery it is the alternator but not good practice to do that with computer comtroled cars it can fry the computer (voltage spikes) the alt isnt to bad to do u have to take it out throught the passanger side wheel well jack the car up and take the right front tire off and u can get it out through there. if u need more help let me know.