Serpentine Belts

You should change the drive belt when you see cracking underneath the belt where it rides against the pulleys(the grove part of the belt)or you need to replace it when it continously squeals

I assume you mean the serpentine belt that drives the various accessories (i.e., water/power steering pumps etc.) and not the timing chain (which some may mistakenly call a belt). If so:

1) Working from back to front, loop the belt over the power steering pump, tensioner and crankshaft pulleys first followed by the a/c compressor and water pump pulleys. This leaves the alternator pulley (the easiest one to access) to be the last one to have the belt installed.

2) Place a socket (19 mm hex) and extension bar/ratchet on the belt tensioner arm's hex shaped projection and rotate it clockwise (looking at the pulley end of the engine)as far as it will go. This will loosen the belt sufficiently so that the last bit can be placed on the alternator.

3) Gently release the tensioner arm so that the belt is tensioned.

4) Inspect the belt to ensure that it correctly positioned on each pulley.

5) If available, use a tension guage (e.g., Burroughs Tool BT 3373-F or similar from Kent-Moore, Snap-On tools etc.) to verify that the tensioner is working properly. Unfortunately, the only place to position this tool is that portion of the belt between the crankshaft and a/c compressor pulleys which means removing the right hand engine under cover and getting underneath the car.

6) Run car, check for unusual noises/proper operation.

its easy the tensioner is on the left side middle facing the vehicle, If i remember correct it is a 5/8ths and all that you need is a regular ratchet. If you look at the digram on the vehicle it displays the belt route. The whole process is really easy! it auto ajusts the tension if you need and new assembly they sell it at autozone.

The above answer is correct, except that usually there is a 3/8 square hole on the tensioner and it can be released with any 3/8 drive ratchet.

Try your local autozone. They should be able to give you a print out. If that fails, try looking in a Haynes repair manual.

The belt tensioner on most GM vehicles has either a 15 or 16 mm nut. Put a socket on a long breaker-bar and use it to back off the tensioner.

I had similar problem last week. I found the answer on autozone.com. I got a gif picture I could look at. you can too. otherwise here goes nothing in text... with AC belt goes http://www.autozone.com/az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/10/b6/be/0900823d8010b6be/repairInfoPages.htm botom of page http://www.autozone.com/images/cds/jpg/small/0900823d8010b6d6.jpg your image you are looking for or the hard way... start at front and going down from ac compressor... around and over water pump pulley...under crank pulley...up and over tensioner pulley... up near alternator but not over just yet... then under idler pulley. with a 15 MM long handle ofset wrench attach to the center bolt on the tensioner pulley and turn CW this will pull tensioner down. as this happens you have the slack to pull belt over the alternator. now gently release tension till the belt is snug. I have done this enough times to find this to be the best and easiest way to work in this tight space.

Hi, I have a 91 lebaron with the 3.0 v6. If it's the same, which I think it should be, there is a plastic cover under the top heater hose and distributor. This has the routing diagram printed on it. However, if it doesn't or it can't be read, take a pencil and paper and plot out all the pully's and the way the belt is routed provided it is still on the vehicle. It's pretty easy to do. It's helpful to have two people to replace, easier to keep tension on the belt when wrapping wround pully's.

If you do not have a routing (belt) diagram under your hood for some reason or other . Just go to any auto parts store and ask for a copy of routing diagrams from either their Gates Serpentine books or whoever supplies them with their serpentine belts . But they DO have that information . You will have to know how many pulleys your vehicle has though,so draw out your pulley position on a piece of paper! THIS IS A MUST in order to get the right route.

loosen the tensioner bracket, remove old belt. replace with new belt. tighten with tensioner. job complete!

Go to www.autozone.com and look under specifications, belt routing. On a 1989 Dodge Grand Caravan, the diagram is on the side of the engine where the S-belt is located.

loosen altinator, loosen smog pump, take smog pump belt loose, then take altinator belt over smog pump belt and over fan

When changing belts, it is important to know the layout and have a diagram to help guide the removal and replacement of these belts. A diagram for these belts can be found in the maintenance manual of a 1989 Toyota Corolla 4-A-F.

There should be a diagram of the belt's routing somewhere under the hood. There is on my Aurora.

make a drawing of how the old one is on it before replacing it,

There is a belt tensioner on the serpentine belt. You must remove the air cleaner housing to access it. Once the air cleaner housing is removed, the tensioner will be on the lower right side when viewed from the passenger side. The tensioner has a place on the front of it where a wrench can be used to release the tension (it is spring loaded). A socket won't fit, but a box end wrench will, and the longer the better as leverage is helpful here. After releasing the tension, I find it is easiest to remove the belt from the alternator pulley on the upper left side. Make note of the routing before removal, a diagram will be helpful here, so draw a sketch if you need to. Installation is the reverse of removal. If you pay a mechanic to do this for you it should take no more than 30 minutes, start to finish. To the best of my knowledge all of the Forenza models are the similar. Don't forget the timing belt as well. Your owner's manual will have the replacement interval. Follow it, as serious engine damage will result from a broken timing belt.

Belt dressing if the belt is in good condition. Make sure that it is not a pulley squeaking and if the belt is in bad shape replace it.

You can do that by replacing the tensioner

http://www.clubfte.com/users/racerguy/zetecbelt.gif number 5 is the tensioner

Got a loud squealing noise when you start the engine and maybe continuing on even after it has warmed up? Then this is for you.

With the engine off of course, reach down to the serpentine belt on the passenger side of the engine and see how much you can twist it with your fingers. If it's 90 degrees or more, then you need to tighten it. Read on. It only takes 5 minutes.

The good news is that you can do this just reaching in with the hood open, using a 14mm socket and ratchet. Locate the smooth idler pulley (right in the middle on top). Loosen the bolt in the center of the pulley, then under the pulley, turn the other 14mm bolt clockwise to tighten. Re-tighten the bolt in the center of the pulley. The belt shouldn't be able to be twisted quite 90 degrees with your fingers, when it's tight enough.

This is the first time for me to work on a Suzuki and I can't seem to get the head off to replace the gasket or to see if the head is cracked is there a trick to removing the head on a 2001 Suzuki esteem 1.8 with dual overhead cam

One of the components driven by the belt or the tensioner has bearings that are going bad or the unit itself like alternator, power steering pump, or water pump are going bad. If it has a manual tensioner it is possible that it was overtightened as well.

# Step 1 Identify which belts need to be replaced. If you are replacing the air conditioner belt, you may need to remove the alternator belt because of the way the belts are shared on the crankshaft pulley. As a result, some mechanics recommend replacing both belts together. # Step 2 Loosen the lock bolt for the belt you are replacing using owner's documentation. The lock bolt will be near the belt tensioner component. # Step 3 Turn the adjustment bolt to change tension on the belt. When the belt is loose enough, slip it off. # Step 4 Use your memory or a belt routing diagram to install the new belt on all pulleys. # Step 5 Adjust the adjustment bolt to replace tension on the belt. Tighten the lock bolt. # Step 6 Make sure the belt is correctly seated on all pulleys and that the ribs fit into grooves on the pulleys. # Step 7 Run the engine and check for any flapping or looseness that could indicate incorrect installation. (eHow.com)

You could do what I did, wait for the tension pulley to fall off the van...

You normally change it when it is worn. Cracked, frayed, these are good signs that you need to replace it before it snaps. Not sure how many miles you have but sometimes it is a good idea to replace the belt tensioner as well. Look on the back side of the serpentine belt (the side of the belt with the ribs). If any of the ribs are cracked the belt should be replaced. Take a look at the physical condition. If it is cracked on the inside (groove or V side) it needs to be replaced.

your original belt length is 1735 mm, when you bypass a/c compressor new lenght will be 1400.

thereby you have to use any 6pk1400 or 7pk1400 belts