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Some additional info Posted by Ari [Email]  (#2847) [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Ari) on Thu, 14 Dec 2000 08:46:46
In Reply to: squealin betts...squealin belts...it's Christmas time in the city, K, Wed, 13 Dec 2000 12:51:35 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
After reading some of the posts-
There is a condition where there is a horrendous squeal when you first start the car, which goes away after a few seconds. This is from the 'harmonic balancer', which is also known as the main pulley. It is the pulley on the crankshaft that drives the belt. The harmonic balancer is a sandwich of two pulleys with rubber in the middle to help reduce vibration. When the rubber gets old, it parts, and the two pulleys will spin at different speeds until heat causes them to spin together. This problem only gets worse with time, and can do significant damage. But again, the usual symptom is a horrendous squeal only at startup. The balancer is not cheap, running about $200 or so installed.
The idler pulley for the serpentine belt has also been known to blow its bearings. A new pulley is about $70 from the dealer, or $20 or less from a place like Sobstory (not an advertisement, just my experience). When I've had the bearings in the pulley fail, you get a 'ballsy rumble' from the belt end of the engine, not a squeal, but I guess if a bearing broke and siezed, you could get a squeal. But it wouldn't be intermittent.
The discussion here is for the manually adjusted serpentine belt, found on cars with a separate AC belt. In later years (sometime after '88), Saab went to a single serpentine belt driving all the accessories including the AC, and that is self tensioning. Different animal.
The serpentine belt tension can easily be adjusted, heck, even replaced, from above. You will need a 13mm deep socket and a 13 mm open end or box end wrench, along with a 10mm socket.
For either the serpentine or AC belt, I move the coolant tank. Pull out the 10 mm long bolt, and just lift and move the tank to the side. No need to drain it, it's got a hose. This gives you more room.
For the serpentine belt, there is a bolt running through the axis of the pulley (parallel to the ground, head facing the fenderwell). Loosen that bolt about a turn or so. Tension adjustment is via a long threaded rod that sticks up and forward from the pulley. It has a 13mm on it. It slip a deep socket over it, but you could use a box wrench, but it'll be slower. Tightening the nut tightens the belt. Once the belt is where you want it, tighten the bolt running through the axis of the pulley. If you forget to loosen that bolt in the first place, tensioning the belt will be harder, and you won't be able to untension the belt.
If you need to replace the serpentine belt idler pulley, just untension the belt, then remove the bolt running through the axis of the pulley. Slide it out a little, and you'll be able to pull the pulley up. The pulley has a threaded hole.
The AC belt requires a 13 mm and 17 mm open end or box end wrenches. There is a rod running through the middle of the AC idler pulley. On the outside is a 13mm locknut, next is a 17mm adjusting nut, then the pulley. Loosen the 13mm a turn or so. Slip the 17 mm over the bigger nut and turn. I believe that turning counter clockwise tightens, but it'll be obvious. If you let go of the 17mm, the belt goes slack. The trick here is to hold the tension you want with the 17mm, and then tighten the 13mm locknut. Theoretically it should take only two hands, but it feels like it needs three. But it is doable. Sometimes I use a ratchet for the 13mm. You will definately appreciate moving the coolant tank for this job.
Tensioning either belt is about a 10 minute job. The hardest part is getting the long 10mm bolt through the coolant tank lined up again. Don't overtighten it, or you risk cracking the tank.
Hope this helps.
, Thu, 14 Dec 2000 08:46:46 <-- Viewing This Message, Thu, 14 Dec 2000 10:12:25, Wed, 13 Dec 2000 14:11:53
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