How to install Serpentine belt sunfire 4-cylinder 98?

Answer 1

Well, I guess that I'll reluctantly go through this one again.

You've asked what is probably, the most asked question in this forum. There are answered versions floating around, so it may benefit you to look around.

However! The belt replacement is pretty direct, but you will want to have a diagram

of it's routing. Some cars have one under the hood somewhere, and some don't. If yours

doesn't, PLEASE, draw a quick sketch so you will remember what's going on.

Now, you need to find the belt tensioner. It's a pulley lookin' thing with a flat, shiny surface. If memory serves, it will be the only rotating device that the BACK of the belt touches. The tensioner has nut on the front. This is so you can get a wrench or socket on it to rotate the tensioner, thus loosening the belt. I think my '96 rotated toward the front of the car.

Once you find the tensioner and figure out how it works, the belt pretty much just slips right off. Installation is the reverse ;) Only it helps to have a friend there to give you a hand. It's danged hard to hold the tensioner and route the belt at the same time.

Good luck and let us know how you do on this job,

FriPilot

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Many if not most of the belt tensions take a 3/8" square drive socket. This is not a socket for a bolt or nut but rather the square drive socket on the end of a socket wrench. When you buy a universal serpentine belt tool, you get a long flat bar with such a 3/8" square drive. You'll also get an assortment of very short sockets and crowsfoot wrenches for on certain vehicles that need them.

The Pontiac Sunbird uses such a 3/8" drive socket on the tensioner pulley. If you look down the side of the engine where the pulley are, you'll spot the tensioner pulley with a 3/8" square hole in it (a flashlight might help). Simple insert the long bar with the 3/8" square drive on it and turn the bar clockwise (towards the front of the car). This takes the tension off of the spring and moves the pulley slightly out of the way giving you a little bit of extra slack in the belt in order to slip it over whichever is the easiest pully to access. Probably the alternator pulley at the front top of the engine.

HTH