Go to start the car this morning and there was a terrible whine. Quickly seemed to be coming from one of the things one of the 2 belts were driving. I thought I would take off the outer belt (alternator / PS pump) and check. I loosened it up but could not get it off over the lip of the pulley. Is there a trick to getting it off? Only other time I had "removed" this belt was when it shredded. I remember the new one was a bitch to get over that pulley. Once over the lip it is plenty loose. The end of the story this morning was that I started the car with the Alt/PS belt loose - same noise. I loosened the back belt (AC) and noise was much less. Cut belt (hey I had to get to work)- noise gone. I figure my idler pulley for the AC belt must be shot. Seems to be a common failure. Any advice for replacing that? OEM best?
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2; en-us; Sprint APA9292KT Build/FRF91) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1) Gates or oem. I usually push down on the alternator to get that belt off
Can also possibly be a bad tensioner. I have the same noise now and then during start up but goes away after a few seconds. Since you're in the area, stop by Allpro, they should have an extra one laying around at the shop.
Theres another tensioner down in the middle below the AC condenser. Loosen and lower that pully just like the alternator.
^^^ this there's a bolt that runs all the way to the top that's like 6" long...I just put an electric drill on there and move it up. Make sure you loosen the bolt on the tension pulley, though. You should be able to make enough slack in there to get a belt half that size on
Thanks Coolbimmer (rex?). I will check that out. Is Allpro open Sat? Is it across from the Kroger on Hwy 9?
On the main belt for the PS pump, alternator there is no extra pulley - just crank pulley, alt, ps. Seems like if I run the adjust bolt out the alternator doesn't move more. I guess I could take the alternator off - looks like just 2 bolts. To get the AC idler off, do I just take the whole bracket off? Looks that way. That idler is plastic - seems cheap!
ugh...i feel like a subaru wikipedia look at the picture below, between the alternator and the PS pump you'll see a piece cocked to the 530 position (top to bottom). There's about a 5" threaded rod on there that you can loosen from the top. Make sure you loosen the PS pump first before you back the bolt up. The bolt doesn't move, it just raises the PS pump (tensioner). FFS, get a manual
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.1-update1; en-us; SCH-I500 Build/ECLAIR) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/530.17) David, did ya figure this out? Give me a call tomorrow if you're still having a problem.
Sorry to start a thread and not reply back. Thanks for all the replies and help. I haven't looked into this further. I plan to get a pulley and belt in the next few weeks and get it fixed. Haven't had too much need for AC over the weekend . I think maybe what I was missing was not loosening the PS pump bolt. I will give that a try. One complication is that my new radiator is thicker and making everyting in that area tight! I do have a FSM btw (electronic version)- it is not too much help with some of the details!
Like everyone above has posted, it is a painless process. You loosen the bolt that secures the alternator adjustment "slider". You then begin to adjust the position of the alternator from the bolt that is on the top of said bracket. This action will push the alternator downward, towards the ground. You then loosen the bolt that secures the tension pulley "slider". Once the locking bolt is loose, you tighten the adjustment bolt (located on the top of the adjustment "slider") so that the pulley is pulled upward, away from the ground. And as said previously, using an electric impact or even a drill with a hex bit will save you mucho time. I don't know which FSM you are using, but please see this link: http://wrxatlanta.com/maintenance/g... PERIODIC MAINTENANCE SERVICES/06. V-belt.pdf
and in my experience once fully loosened its still a PITA to get the new belts on. If you change both belts the other tensioner has a retention bolt so loosen that first or you will break the tensioner. I have a spare if you forget.
The other tensioner is the one that started all of this. Was making a pretty bad noise. I think I am pretty much at the still a pita to get off. When I get my new belt and pulley I will report back if I am still stuck. Thanks.
How many miles do you have on the car currently? The idea of replacing the pulley itself is not a bad idea IF the belt replacement yields nothing.
Just wanted to update this post. Did this work yesterday. I think what I was missing was loosening the pivot bolt (other bolt) on the alternator. At that point I could tell it would move more easily and running the loosening bolt alot. That let the main drive belt come off easily. I replaced the AC idler pulley. That was pretty simple too. Spent longer retrieving one bolt I dropped. Had to remove the splash shield. Thanks for all the replies!