Changing a belt (tensioner)

I HAVE TO be doing something wrong. I simply CANNOT remove the old belt.
Please, what am I not doing?
Thank you
Carlo

If you are referring to a belt that runs from the crank to the water pump with a jockey (idler) pulley… I have to get the belt over the 2 upper pulleys and part way on the crank pulley and then bump the motor to pop it on. Also helps to have the jockey pulley pulled to one side with a rope or wire.

Okay, that is to install it – but I would expect removal to require something similar if you wish to use the bet again (i.e. get it part way off the crank pulley [say at 2:00] and bump the motor).

If you do not want to use the belt again then, of course, you can just cut it and be done.

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Thank you, Geo- I can’t get enough of the belt off the pulley where bumping the motor would accomplish the desired effect. The idler pulley is out of the way and the belt is clear of it. I just can’t understand why the belt can’t move enough to partially clear the pulley. It looks like I have to either remove the pulleys or cut the belt- and neither is the right thing to have to do. These books are useless.

Job done. Pulley had to come off.
Thank you, Geo for your input.

It is also a possibility the belt you took off was a skosh short.

There is little room, either way.

Part number-wise it is the same length. All questions don’t have answers

True deal: I learned to never trust published data on belt lengths, decades ago.

In any case, your learning curve continues!

Carlo, I had the same problem the other day when I tried to remove the belt on my 3.8. Still haven’t got it off, but temporarily moved on to something else.

Scott- Had I known the job would have been a cakewalk with the pulley off, I would have done so from the beginning instead of fighting to get the belt off. The belt went on so easily with the pulley off.

I’ll have to look into that option. Thanks for the suggestion.

On a TR4 you have to loosen the motor mounts and jack up the engine to change the belt. Try that on a dark and stormy night (why I carry a length of poly rope in that car).

Same on a Honda Odyssey mini van.

Over the years I bought the Haynes and then the big green manual and then Bentley’s. Sometimes one gives better info than the other about a job. But yes they all can sometimes be a bit vague. Thank goodness for this site.

David
68 E-type FHC

Oh, thanks. I’d nearly blocked that little gem of a memory. Didn’t help that the belt was, what? A foot wide?

:confounded:

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Yes, as I recall 7/8" wide and about as thick. Same belt used on a (big) Cummins engine. TR engineers liked a wide margin of safety in the design (e.g. ½" head studs).

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Well, it wasa tractor engine, after all…:wink:

Not sure I could pull the 105 ft-lbs of torque, any more…:persevere:

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Ferguson tractor - right?

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Yep, wet sleeved and solid as a brick dunny.

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This guy knows how it’s done on a VW bug:

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Did it that way, all the time: TIME IS MONEY!

:grimacing:

I doubt I’ll ever forget that particular clatter!