surfpig
The Anti-Tech
It took me much more than 25 minutes, but yeah. Once I got the transmission off, everything went smoothly.
Changing your belts in 25 minutes (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter IdahoDoug
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you can't see the alternator bolts from the front of the truck. you have to remove the battery cover and even then you can't see them.
everyone is doing it blind which is why so many people are saying they are stripping things or it is taking a long time.
this is why i am posting photos so i can make sure i know where the bolts are and i was going to put torque values assigned to them so i am not looking for these while wrenching.
if you are saying different just point out the alternator bolts in the photos i posted. sure you can look at something in the FSM. but if you literally can't see them on the trick first time doing this it helps to label them first.
It's plainly visible in photo 18. I can see mine with the battery box in. I don't remove the box to change belts.
i appreciate your help. i really miss kevin on here.
anyway here is the intel from joey. some of these you can't see when wrenching on the actual vehicle. this is why i am asking.
also not w equine oboes the names for them so it helps to list them and number them so you are not missing anything.
when it is laid out like this i can see i need to find the pivot bolt by feel and also the lock bolt by feel.
if anyone has photos of those without the radiator removed it would be good to see.
here is what you have to love about romero. instead of having a mini stroke every time a new wrench can't find a part on his truck because he can't see it or isn't sure what he is supposed do or if he is supposed to turn it clockwise or counterclockwise to loosen - in part because he doesn't even know the name - not only does he supply the part to buy he tells you how to avoid bitching it.
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thank man. i appreciate that.
i still can't see it which is sort of what i was hoping to do before i am up under it or trying to find it going down from the top or from the side.
i mean i get that i can see it in the FSM but it is helpful to know where it is in a view like this.
i do see the belt tensioner here and i can get at that from where the battery box used to be. it's a straight shot to the tensioner from there.
but i can't really see that pivot bolt from this view and i can't see the lock bolt from this view.
also i am getting at those two from on top of the truck?
the pivot bolt especially. it needs 43 ft lb which is a bit of a heavy lean with 12"+ of extender on there? i mean i don't think you can get at it in a straight shot or see it even. you have to come down from the top and find it blind i think?
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And since I have a feeling you'll ask....
Can we **** this up anymore? IDK.
Let’s ask Larry when he got caught feeling the fake titties.
This entire endeavor is a LD episode… on repeat.
Let’s ask Larry when he got caught feeling the fake titties.
This entire endeavor is a LD episode… on repeat.
Hang in there man, it's been a tough thread to read but we are rooting for you in the mud family way 
But seriously loosen the damn bolts and swap the belts. Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind...... was listening to some Tool earlier today and this came to mind.
But seriously loosen the damn bolts and swap the belts. Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind...... was listening to some Tool earlier today and this came to mind.
A mirror, or smart phone photo takes care of what you can't easily see.
I regularly use my smart phone to "look at" things I can't see directly.
There's no need to remove battery tray.
You don't need to see a bolt head to undo it.
You can see where they are enough to locate them, then feel to place a socket on the bolt. Then, rub your tummy, and pat your head.
Well, not really, but there's no more trick to it.
Loosen lock and pivot bolts ½ to ¾ turn. Just enough to take tension off the bolt
Alternator and AC tension adjustment bolts are accessible from underneath. The alternator adjustment bolt is more accessible if you push the rubber inner fender skirt out of the way.
Pics were taken while I was completing other work.
Normally, I would change belts with fan, shroud, battery box etc in place.
AC pulley is best accessed from underneath
great pics. thanks for posting them. i'm sure others doing the job for the first time will appreciate it.
for the first time in i found the AC compressor tensioner to be a little hard to understand. somehow it is counterintuitive in a way. even after working on it i find it is sort of counterintuitive. until you work on one it can be tricky and i didn't see anything here that explains it well. so a term like "lock nut" is not easy to understand until you work on one.
also the alternator belt tensioner i couldn't see in the truck and the fiche doesn't have very good diagrams. so it wasn't until i saw joeys information and the two parts on his site that i knew what i was looking for or what was getting loosened. it's not the kind of assembly you would understand unless you had worked on cars before.
i actually did use a mirror from my motorcycle toolkit and realized the pivot bolt was right there but the tensioner assembly you still can't see very well. so it wasn't until i pulled it and cleaned it and made sure the bolt wasn't bent or cross threaded that i understood how it works (pic below) so also reading a term like "lock nut" or "block" for the alternator tensioner was confusing.
also i still don't quite understand why you loosen the pivot bolt on the compressor.
if you are a new wrench i highly advise removing the battery box. i'd actually remove it if i had to do it again (two pics of this below). i suppose on some rigs it is easier to get to but on mine it was hard to get to even with the battery box removed. a lot of posters report that in this thread.
what else do i have for the new wrenches?
oh, use a 1/2" breaker bar to break the pivot bolt on the alternator. that was the one bolt i would have used a 12 sided socket on if i had one. definitely have an assortment of smaller wrenches. one that has the handle that angles is really helpful. i love my snap on stubby wrench for jobs like this.
oh, pull the idle tensioner. the alternator belts goes on easier without it.
move the belts one groove at a time as was explained here for alternator belts. for the AC belt i spent some time trying to get it on from above but if you slip it over the crank pulley and just on top of the AC compressor puller you can slide it over from underneath while you push up the tensioner.
the alternator belts took a bit of muscling them.
and i actually eventually ended up putting a sharp box cutter in my pocket because i was a tad concerned about getting a finger stuck. better safe than sorry.
if you're a new wrench don't hesitate to ask it will save you a lot of time out there. or a stripped bolt head. actually i didn't even know which one was the alternator or the water pump or the AC compressor when the belts flew off just before i got on the highway so despite some of the slack here about asking a lot of questions i'm stoked to have done this job.
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oh two more. for the AC compressor tensioner i just kind of pulled it downward and locked the lock nut with tension on the pulley. then adjusted the lock bolt. for the alternator belt tensioner i just threaded the tensioner bolt in until it bottomed out at the "base" of the tensioner block so it was fully inserted. then i think i put tension on the belts by pulling on it while i locked the block in place. then i adjusted the alternator tensioner bolt. HTH
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oh shoot! i have another question! how do you know when the belts are tensioned properly?
the belts seem like they are about 1cm wide and i saw one poster here said that he uses 1cm "lateral displacement" for the alternator belts. what about for the AC belt? i checked oriellys to rent or buy a belt tensioner and they said they don't even have any.
The compressor is fixed in place, doesn't pivot.
The alternator pivot bolt needs to be loosen because the clamping force of the bolt, and years of corrosion etc will stop the alternator from pivoting.
You'll potentially strip threads off the adjustment bolt if you force it
Reach in over the top of the radiator and push the belt downwards with your thumb.
The belt should not deflect more than about ⅜ or 10mm (use reasonable amount of pressure with your thumb, but don't go bruising your thumb)
hey mudgudgeon. thanks again for the pics. i think new wrenches that come along will find them useful. at a minimum they won't have to ask for them!
i rotated one because it originally looked a little bit like you were doing the alternator tensioner bolt from below which i found confusing at first.
also just to be clear you have the radiator pulled to get these shots. you can't see this with the front end still fully assembled.
i mean this is why folks earlier have had trouble with the tensioner bolts and blocks...
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