Hello,

I worked on my water pump a bit yesterday and noticed that I need new belts!! Replacing them is no problem, but I'm having a LOT of trouble with one of the belt tensioners. I was able to get three of the four belts un-tensioned, but the front most one, I don't know what it's called, but it's pictured here, I could NOT get loose. I loosened the belt adjuster for it, but it would NOT loosen. I looked everywhere but could not find any additional tensioner. What did I miss? How do I get this damn thing off?

The belt in reference is pictured here, but that's not my car, it's a slightly different configuration, but the same belt.

Thank you!

 

thats the AC belt on /that/ car, and thats my car, a 1992 740 turbo wagon

240's have the alternator and AC and everything moved around relative to a 740/940. I don't have ours here anymore so I can't double check. IIRC, on our 1987 240, the AC is above the power steering pump, and the alternator is on the other side. further, the AC and PS shared a belt on that 87.

 

Hello,

I need to figure this one out. My belts are really old and cracked, and I don't feel safe taking the car out of town until I replace them, but I CANT figure out how to get the tension out of the belt pictured above! I loosened all the other belts, and located the tensioner bolts for the belt in question, but i can't get the thing to budge! It's as if I'm missing a secondary tensioner bolt or the tensioner is seized somehow. Please advise!

Thanks.

 

on your 88 240, what is in that position? I believe on our 87 240, that is the power steering pump, with the AC above it, and the belt goes around both of them (or there's a belt for engine to AC, then a separate belt from AC to PS?). on the 240, the alternator is on the other side.

 

I don't know. I don't have my Haynes manual in front of me, and I couldn't tell what's what just by looking at it anyways.

 

on MY 740, the top right (of the picture, left side of the car) is the alternator, its clearly distinctive. below it on mine is the AC compressor, it has an electric clutch mechanism in its pulley, also quite distinctive. tucked in on the other side of the engine (left of the photo, right side of the car) is the power steering pump, which is smaller, obviously a hydraulic pump, and plumbed to the PS reservoir and steering rack. behind the silver bell in the top middle is the water pump (which has the mechanical fan on it on earlier models, 1992 7/9 series went all electric).

I'm pretty sure, from memory, that our 1987 240 has the alternator on the cars right side (mechanic's left), the AC on the upper left, and PS on the lower left. I'm less sure about how its all connected with belts, but I'm remembering that when the AC belt failed on our 240, we lost power steering, but still had alternator charging.

 

I don't have A/C, or if I do, it doesn't work. My alternator is on the car's right side/mechanic's left. I imagine the bottom belt on the mechanic's right side is for the PS. At any rate, I can't get the tensioner to loosen! Would it help if I snapped some pictures for you at home on my lunch break?

 

have you sprayed the threads and anything else that might be holding it in place with a penetrating oil like AeroKroil or PB Blaster ?

 

That's just the thing, I can't figure out what's holding it in place. It might just be one of those things I have to inspect more closely; something that can't really be troubleshooted by someone over the internet.... :-\

 

as far as I remember, its just a lead-screw like tensioner mechanism, I don't think there's even a clamp or lock bolt. you loosen that long thin screw, and the PS pump should pivot upwards, towards the engine.

 

The belt in question is the bottom one in the photo below



Not sure what it's for. Can anyone tell me?

The tensioner that I'm using to loosen it can be seen here:

It's kind of a pain getting go that 13mm lock-nut, but do-able. Is that the only tensioner for that belt?

 

that sure looks like an AC compressor from here.

maybe its just an idle pulley, I dunno. if you don't have any AC, then you could skip that pulley entirely, and run the PS pump on top directly off the main crank pulley, but that might require rearranging the other belts.

 

I just want to relieve the tension on that belt and replace it, with the other belts. I can't get the others off until I get that one off. I don't want to cut it off because i'll never be able to get another one there without the tension released. I swear I didn't miss anything, it just seems like the tensioner in the second picture has no effect on the belt tension.

 

its been awhile since I've touched the 240, maybe you have to loosen the pivot bolts too. for sure I'd squirt everything with some AeroKroil or whatever

 

I think you are missing a bolt on the back side of the compressor. The screw tensioner is on top front bracket, but there is also a mounting bolt on the top rear bracket. I was looking for a good picture and came across a thread where Pierce shows the mounting diagram.

https://volvoforums.com/forum/volvo-...or-belt-67900/

I think 9-11 probably needs to be loose... I had the same issue on my 93 a few years ago took me awhile to find it.

 

Interesting.

It seems like number 11 is a pivot bolt, which would mean that this belt is the only belt that requires a pivot bolt to be loosened in order for the tensioner to function. Seems weird. It's getting dark and I'm not wearing the right clothes to tear into it, but I'm probably going to end up trying to loosen every ****ing one until I find the one that allows the unit to pivot....

irritating. Too bad the Haynes manual totally sucks at explaining how these belt tensioners function. Perhaps to mechanics at the time it was supposed to be 'obvious' ?

Thank you.

 

It is the only one requiring that extra bolt. AC Compressors are a HEAVY load. It has to have that rear support or it will twist on the front brackets when the clutch kicks in.

For good diagrams try to score a copy of Vida/Vadis off ebay, (parts diagrams are so nice to have when finding all the hidden bits.) That is what Pierce posted a screen shot of in the link above.

 

Thanks. Makes sense. I'll get dirty one day soon and try to find it. It's not as easy to locate on the car as the diagram makes it seem!

 

Replacing the alternator long bolt (the one that holds it in place) myself today (1995 940) - which is the tensioner bolt for the alternator?

 

the compressor has two bolts at the bottom that need to be loosened before the tensioner will release. It's a PITA