HELP with Serpentine belt replacement

[97vulcan]

I can't get the old belt off of the tensioner pulley. How do you do it? and how do you put the new one on?

Thanks,
Adam


BTW, my car is without the belt as we speak, so if someone could please enlighten me soon, I would appreciate it!

 

[Sooner]

We have had problems with a power steering leak and have plenty of experience getting the belt off and on. There is a slot on the tensoner where you can insert a 3/8" ratchet or breaker bar to relieve the tension on the belt, but if your car is like ours, there is not enough room to access the slot between the frame and the tensioner.
We used a large pry bar to pry it back and relieve the tension. Makes it a 2 person job, but should only take 5 -10 minutes. There should be a diagram showing the belt routing on the firewall or shock tower...seems you are looking right at it when you are reaching down for the belt.
Good Luck

 

[97vulcan]

Dude, I don't know how you got it done in 15 minutes, but I cant seem to get the tensioner to let out enough to slip the belt over the a.c pulley. I am so PISSED!!! It took me a good 2 hours of messing with this damn thing!!!!! I am venting, and I still havent gotten the tensioner to let out enough so I could get the belt over the a.c. I tried the rental tool from Autozone, no good, tried a pry bar, no good! I don't know what to try next. Please help if you can!

Thanks,
Adam

 

[qbcsvt]

Well I havent changed the serpentine belt for a Contour. But I tried for my previous car.... I finally found it and tried to get everything goin and i didnt have enough play with the belt to get everything in place.

I got my friend to relieve the tension while I got everything on.. and it worked.

Try getting another person in on this.. Cause once I did, I went from a 2 hour waste of time to a 5 minute job....

- Amyn

 

[smokedya95stang]

look belts are easy sometimes u just need a second person.

ALl u need is a 3/8ths rachet on these vehicles and possibly a pipe.
You need to use the rachet to bring the tensioner out as far as u can get it. (use a pipe or smoehting to give u more leverage so this will be easier.. spring loaded tensioners cna be a *****.

Try ratching the rachet a little to get a few more inches out of the tensioner. THEN whne installing the belt route it over all the pulleys. Then the LAST PULLEY you want to use to put the belt back on is any FLAT non groved pulley. Pulleys like the alt/AC has a ridge to it to keep the belt on.
Using a flat pulley u can slide the belt on rather than fighting to ge tit over a 1" ridge on a pulley.

 

[Sooner]

Put the belt on the AC and use your pry bar to push down on the tensioner. Have your assistant put the belt over the power steering pulley at the top. This is the last pulley to put the belt on...should make it a bit easier.
Nothing is easy on these things!

 

[SVT3C]

Hmm....I was able to put it back on by myself, even after putting on a (slightly) bigger idler pulley. Take the time to make sure you are relieving enough tension and slide over the power steering pulley last.

If you are trying to take the belt completely off you need to remove the tensioner, I believe it is a T40 to remove it....but I have a horrible memory.

p.s. way to go on making 3 threads about the same thing....