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1985-1998 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
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The serpentine belt on my '96 has lost a row or two of grooves off one side, and I'm afraid of it breaking entirely, so I got the new belt (Saab dealer item, at a high price but it's EPDM rubber and looks "luxus klasse" nice) plus, from Eeuro, the crank seal and the outer CV boot I wanted to do today too.
Thought I could do the serp belt without the 12 point socket and without a 1/2" breaker as I've got lots of tools and tricks. But things didn't go well last night, and today I sprang for the breaker bar and socket at Sears but still no go.
I made up a retainer tool out of a piece of angle iron and two hardened 1/4-20 x 1 1/2" bolts with nuts. Spacing, per Quasi's site, was just 4 1/2" ON CENTERS, so between bolts more like 4 1/4".
I used a 1/2" ratchet and a six point socket to start, pipe cheater on the ratchet, pulled the skinny overflow hose from coolant reservoir to give me a few more degrees, and went to work.
First of all, angle is wrong with standard ratchet unless you have a cut-down socket. The breaker bar bends to less than 90 degrees so socket goes on straight with no cocking pressure, but the ratchet, otherwise. So, the socket slipped off a few times.
Also, the LH thread bolt kept wanting to slip and tighten a few more degrees from time to time, instead of the arm moving.
Between those it meant several trials before I got full-arc compressing, as far as I could swing things.
But then, reaching down (easily possible, this need NOT be a two-man job) to slip my retaining tool into place, I found I was a small fraction of an inch from getting it into the bottom notch. Tried over multi times.
So I gave up till today, figuring 12 point socket would give me the extra few degrees. Progress so far, no dice. And the socket has started slipping off the now-rounded bolt head.
I can't see why a tool with a touch wider spacing wouldn't work fine, and be much easier to get into place - - at least 4 1/2" BETWEEN BOLTS, not between centers, and maybe more like 4 5/8"-plus??? Can someone check if that tool's specs appear in any official Saab manual anywhere, for the late model cars?
It just needs to hold the hydraulic arm SOMEWHAT compressed as I see it, to take pressure off the belt and hold the tensioner against damage when you turn the pulley bolt clockwise to remove it. Not bottomed all the way to the max.
The problem is, I made my tool from the only angle iron I could find, actually pretty light gauge but HARDENED material I had kicking around from an old computer-typesetter's cabinet (foolishly overbuilt bomb-proof per one-time industry standard specs), and it's impossible to drill it. I found a short piece with already-made holes just 4.5" on center and figured I was golden.
Maybe I'll grind my projecting bolts off on their inner side and see how much space I can get, though that will weaken them.
What if I just cut the belt, spin the LH bolt out of the tensioner with an air wrench, and try to recompress it off the car using an arbor press?
Now I have to rummage deep to turn up some other metal that I can drill.
I WILL NOT LET IT WIN!!!
posted by 71.241.19...
, Tue, 4 Nov 2008 12:06:14
, Tue, 4 Nov 2008 04:36:05, Tue, 4 Nov 2008 04:37:40
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