Changing your belts in 25 minutes (2 Viewers)

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There have been a few posts lately with folks changing the 3 drive belts and including the unneccessary steps of removing the battery, the battery tray, the lower engine bay skidplate and even the fan (!?).

Since I changed my belts today after a fruitless attempt to quiet them down, I thought I'd outline this simple procedure, which I'd have completed in 20 minutes had my neighbor walked over to say hello.

First, loosen the lock bolt in the center of the A/C tensioner pulley. It's a 14mm and I find it easiest reached standing with the left foot in the engine bay and right foot on the bumper. Lean way down with an open end wrench, bracing yourself on the valve cover with your left hand. Just loosening a revolution will do.
Then slide under the truck with a 14mm on about a foot of extension and find the 1" hole under the AC compressor. Directly in line with it is the tensioner bolt - a very long bolt. Turn it counter clockwise until it comes loose and then insert it for a revolution or two. It helps to remove the ratchet handle and use the extensions only once the bolt is finger tight so you don't drop the bolt. You just 'feel' that it's out of threads, then spin it back in a rev or two.

Loosen the alternator upper bolt it pivots on. Just a couple turns and I think it's a 12mm.
Then the lock nut on the alternator below it - again only a couple turns (12mm). This lock nut clamps down on a very long bolt whose threads you can see while loosening it, which is the tensioner bolt.
Loosen the tensioner bolt counterclockwise (12mm) until it literally comes out of the tensioner. Thread it back in a couple turns. This tensioner bolt is easily accessed with a socket wrench sans extension in a tight spot a stubby would speed things up. The 3 minutes of limited swinging here is what causes most folks to opt for the hour of removing the battery and battery tray.

So now to remove the belts. First, the A/C belt will nearly fall off, though it might help to reach deep down in with one hand to manually pull the tensioner pulley up (gravity will keep it holding the belt). Then the longer dual belts - forward one first. Pulling/pushing on the belts will help pivot the alternator all the way through its travel to ease reinstalling the new ones. Then roll the forward one off the alternator pulley and free it from the other pulleys. Loop it up over a couple fan blades, then rotate the fan and keep looping over more and more blades until you can simply pull it up and out between the fan and the radiator fins. There's plenty of room here - no need to remove the fan. Roll the rearward belt off and do the same.

Install the rearmost of the new dual belts, seating the the belt properly on the rear groove of the engine pullley and first putting it in the forward groove on the alternator pulley, then moving it to the alternator pulley's rear groove where it belongs. I mention this because trying to move it directly to the alternator's rear groove will cause tremendous tension in the belt. Better to do two small steps. Seating the 2nd of the dual alternator belts is more difficult because you can't spin the pulleys as easily to get it into the groove with the other belt adding some friction. If you can't get it fully on, note the direction the engine will spin (look at the fan blades, which push air rearward when the engine's running) and hook the belt as best you can such that when you bump the starter the engine will pull it the rest of the way. BE SURE YOU HAVE NO TOOLS OR PARTS WHERE THEY CAN CAUSE DAMAGE OR INJURY.

Tension the dual belts by tightening the tensioner bolt clockwise until you're satisfied. Snug up the tensioner lock bolt - no need to crank on it, just nice and snug. Tighten the bolt the alternator pivots on above it.

Now install the A/C belt. As before, it helps to reach way down with your left hand and manually lift the tensioner pulley to get enough slack and keep holding the pulley up while you're working it onto the A/C compressor pulley. Back under the truck to tighten the belt tensioner bolt. Right foot back in the engine bay and lean way down to tighten the tensioner's lock bolt. You're done. Now snicker to yourself about how others would still have 45 minutes work or more to reinstall the battery, battery box, skidplate and fan. With the 90 minutes you saved, wash the car and check all fluid levels, tire pressure and have a #6 while sitting on the tailgate while snickering a bit more....

DougM

Thanks for the info. I just broke the A/C tensioner bolt, so i'll give this another try when it comes in. This thing is unlike any belt change I've had to mess with in the past.
 
I'm surprised to see the difficulty people are having changing the belts. I'm a novice mechanic and have learned through necessity because I either couldn't afford to pay someone else or because I'm too cheap. I say this because my belts only took about 25-30 minutes (and two Miller Lites) to replace. I did take the fan loose but not all of the way out. I took the alternator lock bolt out all of the way and took the adjustment bolt all of the way loose and pushed the alternator down all of the way (further in than it will go with the lock bolt in place). Slid the two belts over the pulleys and tightened the bolts. The AC Compressor was even easier. Used the access hole to loosen the adjustment bolt. Put the belt on. Put the fan back on. Tightened the adjustment bolts. Tightened the lock bolt. DONE. Didn't bump the starter or remove the battery or anything. No problem. I must be a better mechanic than i thought. :D
 
I'm surprised to see the difficulty people are having changing the belts. I'm a novice mechanic and have learned through necessity because I either couldn't afford to pay someone else or because I'm too cheap. I say this because my belts only took about 25-30 minutes (and two Miller Lites) to replace. I did take the fan loose but not all of the way out. I took the alternator lock bolt out all of the way and took the adjustment bolt all of the way loose and pushed the alternator down all of the way (further in than it will go with the lock bolt in place). Slid the two belts over the pulleys and tightened the bolts. The AC Compressor was even easier. Used the access hole to loosen the adjustment bolt. Put the belt on. Put the fan back on. Tightened the adjustment bolts. Tightened the lock bolt. DONE. Didn't bump the starter or remove the battery or anything. No problem. I must be a better mechanic than i thought. :D

Yeah...I don't know what my problem was. I just did the drive and A/C belt on the Camaro (LS1/small block V-8) a few weeks ago. I have to admit that I prefer the tensioners that require only a breaker bar to release pressure on the belt.
 
what to do if the alternator doesnt move to loosen belts? pivit bolt, lock bolt and adjust bolt all loose still wont move, i think i cracked my alternator housing w/ dead blow tryin to get it to budge
 
Changed my ac belt this morning took off splash guard, took 10 min total.


Matt
 
Wow, five pages!

DO NOT strip the lock bolt tapered piece of **** bolt head. It will be an interesting three weeks grinding the damn thing off. BUT, the great big square class 8 bolt you replace it with will never strip. Ever.

Save the old belts if at all serviceable, as they can get you (or a buddy) back to civilization. I cable tied them to the firewall stuff.

About a :banana::banana: job. A great excuse to buy a proper gear wrench set - and worth it for only this job, if you need an excuse.
 
Just did this today, took me 45 minutes but I was in no hurry and have all the right tools.

thanks for the write up, it's perfect.
 
Oh yeah-- did this today, 3 new belts and 2 new pulleys (AC and generator)-- thx cDan-- and my truck is now quiet like a ninja. An FZJ ninja.

Took me about 2 hours because of some stubborn bolts and a bitch of an AC belt going on, but its all good now.
 
can someone post me a link or tell me how to go about buying the new set of OEM belts from "dan"..thanks i am trying to figures out a sound..its more like a ticking sound but not valvetrain noise..it increases with RPM's..i used a mech. sound scope and cant find it but it sound like its coming from the belt area. But its deff a tick..sounds like possiblly a bad bearing in an idler of alt or compressor..i took the main idler off sounds still there and its loud enough to hear inside the truck..its like a steady click click click with almost a creak mixxed in..anyone have any ideas towards it..possibly the ac idler?
 
how do you know when ur belts are tight enough?
there is an BAD sound when i turn the wheel NOW since i changed the belts....
wasnt there before
Changed all 3 belts
 
Hmm, its a feel thing. As to the squeal, sure you got everything mounted up correctly?

DougM
 
it seemed like everything fit together well, replaced radiator, upgrade to 150 amp alternator, new fan clutch, and 3 new belts but it has been sittin for 3 months, no time to work on it..... im gona look at the belts again before work ...
 
it seemed like everything fit together well, replaced radiator, upgrade to 150 amp alternator, new fan clutch, and 3 new belts but it has been sittin for 3 months, no time to work on it..... im gona look at the belts again before work ...

w.r.t. your question, in my Haynes manual, it says that if you place a straight edge along the belt, you should only have about 1cm of deflection if you push on the belt laterally. Any more and you should tighten it up.

For anyone doing this and having some rusty parts, the alternator would NOT move on mine and here is what i did:

After loosening up all the bolts on the alternator, i used a combination of lightly tapping the side of the alternator with a hammer (kind of difficult to get the hammer to hit it, but is possible) and pushing down on the belt with a lot of force to get the alternator to move closer in. Using both of these methods, i got that little bugger to move.
 
how do you know when ur belts are tight enough?
there is an BAD sound when i turn the wheel NOW since i changed the belts....
wasnt there before
Changed all 3 belts

it seemed like everything fit together well, replaced radiator, upgrade to 150 amp alternator, new fan clutch, and 3 new belts but it has been sittin for 3 months, no time to work on it..... im gona look at the belts again before work ...

You do realize how far apart these two posts are in terms of the information they provide, don't you?

For one thing, there's a huge difference b/t "changed the belts" and "sitting for 3 months." Have you checked your power steering fluid level?
 
Awesome thread as I'll be doing this in the near future... I'm getting a constant squeaking sound from the front end with the engine one... At first it was just when the engine was cold, but now its there all the time...

I plan on doing all three belts... Should I go ahead and replace the AC and generator pulleys while I'm in there?

Also, I remember reading something about getting the "seams" lined up for the two main belts... Something about preventing premature wear with the belts? Does this sound right?

Any other tips?

THANKS!
 
belts are nice and tight, PS pump is shot leakin out every drop of ATF i put in err
 

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