1985-1998 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
This is to update my 94CS turbo driven by my wife with a severed serpentine belt which eventually overheated in her office parking lot a week ago while I was away.
Came home Sunday evening. There is a record rainfall on Memorial day in New Jersey. Had the car towed home in the pouring rain. Set it in the garage and proceeded with replacing the belt. Hit a snag trying to compress the tensioner upon installation. I found my usual wide jaw adjustable pliers aproach to compress the tensioner doesn't work anymore because the tensioner is fully extended. And the jaw of the pliers is not wide enough to compress the fully extended tensioner.
I heard of the breaker bar approach. But I never tried it before. Neither did I pay any attention to the details of that method. Looked up the archive. Wow! It is so easy I wonder why I did it my own hard way all these times. Have the belt correctly routed and leave it not wound on the idler between the alternator and power steering. Simply slip a 1/2" drive 19mm socket on to a 18" breaker bar. Fit the socket to the tensioner idler pulley nut from the top between the coolant reservoir and the engine. Push the bar toward the car standing in front of it. Once have the tensioner compressed, keep the leverage with the right hand and bent down to slip the belt onto the idler with the left. In a matter of seconds, it is done.
By the way, while I have the tensioner out, I did peel off the rubber sheath to look inside. It has a spring and some oil, but not completely filled with oil as I originally thought. So the oil is for rust inhibition and not for damping. Someone please correct me if I am wrong on this.
posted by 165.254....
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