I'm facing an issue right now, as I have to replace my alternator. In order to do that, I need to of course, release the tension in the auxilary belt. I don't have enough room to really get anything in there, and the repair book states to "make your own special home-made tool", which is a little piece of metal to stick in there, and use that to pry on and loosen the tension.

I really don't have an easy way to cut a piece of metal like that, especially not having any real way of getting a good estimate on dimensions.

If anybody else out there can help me out with this, and possibly have an easier way to get the belt off/on, I would greatly appreciate, as my battery is dieing every 2 days, and I need to replace my alternator.

BTW - I've gone to autozone, Baxters, and even home depot looking for something that would be able to fit in there. Autozone, had an "auxilary drive belt tool", but it wasn't quite what I needed. I tried using a 1/2" drive to put in there, but that was too small. My alternator is only pushing out 12.2V right now, so I need to replace it as soon as I can.

Any help is appreciated!!!! Thanks!!

 

You need a 3/4 ratchet or the 1/2 to 3/4 adapter with a pair is Vise Grips to move it.
Also once before I have used a prybar on the pulley and bracket to move it to get the belt off.

 

Ok, that's what my best guess was, and that's what I was looking for at the autoshops, was the 3/4" drive. When I get the belt off, and start taking off bolts for the alternator, is there enough room in there to wiggle it out and put in the new one?...or am I looking at taking off the power steering pump as well?....

 

chupa i just changed my alternator n serpentine belt like 2 weeks ago! yes it would be 10x easier to remove the power steering! TRUST ME! and as for the serpentine belt! DO NOT BUY THE RECOMMENDED SIZE I learned the hard way when they gave me the belt and when I tried to install it i had a very supper hard time "TRYING" to install it, so i went back and bought 1 size up n within minutes the new belt was on!

 

Yes remove the power steering pump.

 

Ok, thanks for the input guys. I am going to try to get this done tomorrow. I'll let you guys know how it goes

Thanks again!

 

Ok, so i took a look at it today, and pulled the belt off, but I'm stuck on the power steering pump. I got 4 out of the 5 bolts loose to get the pump out of the bracket, but the 5th bolt, of course it's on the backside right next to the intake manifold, is kind of stripped, and I can't get it off lol. On top of that, I can't get my thermostat housing off, because a bolt on that is stripped as well, which means even less room for me to manuever around to get that bolt off. I'm pretty fed up at this point of all the stripped bolts I'm finding on this car lol. I think I'm going to just take it to the shop in the next couple days and pay out of my A$$ for it hah. If there's anything else you guys can think of that could help me out, I would greatly appreciate it. Otherwise, thank you for the help and we'll see what the shop can do with it.

 

I wanted to thank you guys for the help. I did purchase a 3/4" adapter and a big breaker bar. I was able to get the belt off, and finally got my stripped bolts off. I replaced the alternator, thanks to you guys, and replaced my thermostat as well. When I pulled off the thermostat housing, I came to find out I originally had no thermostat in there LOL.

So now, with the thermostat in, of course the car heats up quite a bit quicker, but the car still seems to run a little hot. The fan is on most of the time, it's got plenty of oil (changed about 1,000 miles/1month ago), the coolant is full. Not really sure why else it would be running really hot. It doesn't seem to get hot enough to boil the coolant over or anything, maybe it's just me, but it just seems to be running hotter than normal. Should I be looking at replacing the water pump at some point?....

When I say it's running hotter than normal, the temperature gauge is a little higher than normal, but mainly going by the feel of the engine.

Let me know if I should be looking at like maybe a water pump or temp sender or what? Thanks guys!

 

Maybe temp sensor.