A/C belt -- what's the trick?

[gull]

What's the trick for removing the A/C belt? I loosened up all the bolts, pushed it down and in as far as it would go, but there still wasn't enough slack to get the belt off the pulley. Ultimately I decided it didn't need to come out this time, but eventually I'll need to figure this out.

[Briano1234]

It is a bastard to say the least. You will find that it bottoms out on the bracket itself. I usually just work the belt off with a dull flat blade.

I have gone so far in the past to remove the water pump pulley..and then the belt comes off...


Gee I only had to do that 4 times this past week.

[gull]

OK, that's kind of what I thought. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't overlooking something. Did you have to remove the power steering pulley as well, to get the water pump pulley off?

It's pretty obvious that they put a lot of effort into engineering a nice adjustment system for the alternator, then just said, "Oh, screw it" when they found out they'd have to add an A/C compressor and a power steering pump.

[Briano1234]

No you don't have to touch the power steering pulley. But to wind the new belt on the a/c / water pump/ crank, I had to raise the a/c unit to get the belt on then push it down to get it seated.

There is the "u" bracket that holds the A/c compressor on the front. They have that lovely geared nut adjuster... But I was in the yard and saw the "old diesel " Eye bolt bracket that is the same as what is on there but it uses a eye bolt to tension the a/c belt... I don't care if it ain't stock on a 93 that is a Retro-grade worth doing.... as I can never find all the parts to do the serp belt setup.

[gull]

My '89 has the eye bolt arrangement. The only place I have a geared adjuster is on the alternator.