So far we have removed the fan shroud, the viscous fan, the radiator top hose and the radiator cowling, to leave us with access to the serpentine belt and pulleys, and the belt tensioner.
reasonable access to everything, now
To remove the belt, you need to relax the tension on it. You do this by getting a 15mm ring spanner or socket with a longish T handle, and, putting it on the bolt head on the tensioner, lever it up and towards the off-side (left as you look at it). It takes a fair bit of effort, so don't be timid.
15mm socket and T bar on tensioner bolt
altogether, now... PULL!
Whilst you keep the tensioner pulled up with one hand, with the other hand pull the belt out from under it. When the belt is free, let the tensioner down again.
You can now unwind the belt from around all the pulleys and remove it.
extricate the belt from around the pulleys...
...and remove it.
Whilst the old belt was off, I checked all the pulleys (crank, fan, water pump, power steering pump, alternator) for wear and loose bearings, but they all seemed ok.
I also dried off all the water I could from the pulleys, but as it was pi55ing down at the time this wasn't a great success.
You can now fit the new belt. First, fit it around all the lower pulleys in the correct manner, so that you are left with the remaining pulley being the water pump.
Then heave on the tensioner again, and slip the top of the belt over the water pump pulley and under the tensioner pulley, and then let the tensioner down again.
Check that the new belt is sitting properly in the grooves of all the pulleys.
I found the new belt was quite difficult to get over the last bit - even with no tension on it, it was quite a tight fit, to the point that I wondered it I'd ordered the correct one, after all.
However, once fitted it obviously was the right one:
new belt in place...
After that, it's just a matter of refitting everything in reverse order.
The radiator cowl first, then the top hose. After fitting the hose, refill with water or anti-freeze to compensate for that lost when you took the hose off. Do this through the filler on top of the thermostat housing, and also undo the filler on the top of the radiator to make sure you don't get an airlock.
filler on top of thermostat housing.
After I had got this far, I ran the engine for a bit to check the belt was running properly, and there were no nasty squeaks.
Ooh, shiny!
Then refit theviscious viscous fan, remembering it screws on anti-clockwise, and finally the top fan shroud.
Job done!
reasonable access to everything, now
To remove the belt, you need to relax the tension on it. You do this by getting a 15mm ring spanner or socket with a longish T handle, and, putting it on the bolt head on the tensioner, lever it up and towards the off-side (left as you look at it). It takes a fair bit of effort, so don't be timid.
15mm socket and T bar on tensioner bolt
altogether, now... PULL!
Whilst you keep the tensioner pulled up with one hand, with the other hand pull the belt out from under it. When the belt is free, let the tensioner down again.
You can now unwind the belt from around all the pulleys and remove it.
extricate the belt from around the pulleys...
...and remove it.
Whilst the old belt was off, I checked all the pulleys (crank, fan, water pump, power steering pump, alternator) for wear and loose bearings, but they all seemed ok.
I also dried off all the water I could from the pulleys, but as it was pi55ing down at the time this wasn't a great success.
You can now fit the new belt. First, fit it around all the lower pulleys in the correct manner, so that you are left with the remaining pulley being the water pump.
Then heave on the tensioner again, and slip the top of the belt over the water pump pulley and under the tensioner pulley, and then let the tensioner down again.
Check that the new belt is sitting properly in the grooves of all the pulleys.
I found the new belt was quite difficult to get over the last bit - even with no tension on it, it was quite a tight fit, to the point that I wondered it I'd ordered the correct one, after all.
However, once fitted it obviously was the right one:
new belt in place...
After that, it's just a matter of refitting everything in reverse order.
The radiator cowl first, then the top hose. After fitting the hose, refill with water or anti-freeze to compensate for that lost when you took the hose off. Do this through the filler on top of the thermostat housing, and also undo the filler on the top of the radiator to make sure you don't get an airlock.
filler on top of thermostat housing.
After I had got this far, I ran the engine for a bit to check the belt was running properly, and there were no nasty squeaks.
Ooh, shiny!
Then refit the
Job done!
