A/C Belt Replacement

[thirdmanj]

Hello again all- So as I was pulling the girl into the garage last night I notice a "frap-frap- frap"- in the engine compartment. It was the A/C belt on the fritz. I've checked it , its most definitely time to replace it. So the next question is.... a yeah, how do I do that?

[Ozzie]

See the brackets the pulleys are on? There's actually two brackets a short oval on the top and a longer one underneath it, and they both meet at a common bolt point. Each bracket then has it's own bolt at opposite ends. So that's a total of three bolts that go into the timing cover, from this bracket.

Now run your hand down the bracket, and you should find a long bolt that screws through the bottom of the bracket, and touches the side of the valve head. Some cars don't have that bolt. That bolt is what sets the tension on the belt.

Now that you've identified the applicable bolts. Loosen the three pulley bolts, don't remove them just loosen them. There are two spacers and a seal plate behind them that you want to keep in place, otherwise it just gets more complicated than it should to remount the bracket.

If you have the long bolt at the bottom of the bracket, then undo the nut that locks it in place, and start to loosen the bolt to relieve the belt tension. With the pulley bracket loose, that will relieve the tension in the belt, until you can pull it off the pulleys. If you don't have this bolt, the tension will be relieved as soon as you loosen the three front bracket bolts.

Repeat process in reverse to replace the belt. A good belt tension here is about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch deflection on the longest un-supported length of the belt, with a fingertip push. If you don't have the bolt on the bracket, you'll have to get creative to create tension while you simultaneously tighten the three front bolts - so you may want to consider replacing it if you don't have it. It comes in handy when required.

[DMCMW Dave]

Just an added note - be sure to tension the belt using that long bottom bolt with the two other bolts slightly loose. I've had to straighten a few of the lower brackets where someone has tightened up the tensioner with the other two bolts tight. All that does is bend the tensioner causing the lower pulley to go out of alignment and start eating belts.

The bracket is amazingly stiff steel so people who have bent them must really have been cranking on it.

[thirdmanj]

Thank you Ozzie! Very well written directions, it took me about 15 minutes and everything was right where you said it would be. I was very happy to have that tension bolt, I couldn't imagine doing that job without it! THANKS AGAIN!!!

[Ozzie]

Good job!

...actually when I first got my car, that tension bolt wasn't there and I had no other car to reference. Not knowing any better I had to figure out a way to adjust belt tension upon a belt replacement. I actually schemed a way, in which I could push with 2x4 on the top of the bracket, while I tightened the bolts. When I finally figured out I was missing that long tension bolt, I put it back and in and had to laugh at how easy it was doing it as intended, and retired my 2x4 for other duties.

Glad you're back on the road, with A/C.

[DeLorean03]

Good job!

...actually when I first got my car, that tension bolt wasn't there and I had no other car to reference. Not knowing any better I had to figure out a way to adjust belt tension upon a belt replacement. I actually schemed a way, in which I could push with 2x4 on the top of the bracket, while I tightened the bolts. When I finally figured out I was missing that long tension bolt, I put it back and in and had to laugh at how easy it was doing it as intended, and retired my 2x4 for other duties.

Glad you're back on the road, with A/C.

Well written Ozzie. That's the way we should be helping new people here. I think next time I replace my AC belt, I'm going to do a writeup like yours with pictures.

Question though. I'm aware of the bottom tensioning bolt, but for the A/C bracket you said there are.... 3 bolts?? I only have 2 - 11mm bolts and then a third being the tensioning bolt on the bottom of the valve head. Was just curious - 3 bolts + the tensioning bolt...?

[sean]

Tensioner bolt, then 3 bolts that go in for the pulley brackets, one shared by each bracket and one for each bracket.

[content22207]

#5939 showed up without a tensioning bolt, which presses against the aluminum timing case cover -- don't really know if that's such a good idea in the first place. It also was missing the upper idler pulley. I've logged nearly one decade and tens of thousands of miles like this no problem:
5939AC1.jpg 5939AC2.jpg 5939AC3.jpg

Bill Robertson
#5939

[Ozzie]

Well written Ozzie. That's the way we should be helping new people here. I think next time I replace my AC belt, I'm going to do a writeup like yours with pictures.

Question though. I'm aware of the bottom tensioning bolt, but for the A/C bracket you said there are.... 3 bolts?? I only have 2 - 11mm bolts and then a third being the tensioning bolt on the bottom of the valve head. Was just curious - 3 bolts + the tensioning bolt...?

I dunno, I count three:

The two on the left actually do double duty and act as the bolts that hold the RH/456 cam seal. The other (#3 above) is the pivot point of the top bracket. All three need to be loosened to make the system pivot so it can collapse and release tension.

[DeLorean03]

Wow - I'm gonna have to go look at my car later and see if I have the 3rd one. I'm sure I do , but I swear I only loosened two when doing my AC belt replacement O_O...