Well I rebuilt the alternator , got her placed back in and upon starting the car I had no sweet music of the vroom vroom. Upon further examination discovered that the belt that I thought I'd put on evidently misplaced itself so I failed to be positioned in ALL the correct pulleys. Seems like it takes 3 hands to put it back on. One to deal with the tensioner 1 and the other hands to repostion it and a third to hold the belt onto the smooth water pump pulley, Has anyone found a trick to do thing without crawling under the car?.
Reinstalling drive belt on Camry after alternator fix
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I hope you didn't buy that belt from AutoZone. My daughter had a belt from them that they swore was right according to their computer, but I found it to be too SHORT and impossible to install. After a refund and getting a serpentine belt from O'Reilley, the installation was a breeze. You might have to position the belt on the crank pulley from under the car, or remove a wheel and side panel for access and it takes a certain patience and finesse to do it alone. If you have helpers, so much the better. If you put the belt on correctly and it jumped off when the engine runs, check the tension isn't too tight ( short belt ) or too loose (wrong belt or damaged tensioner. Before the belt is on, see that none of the pulleys bind up or wobble. Good luck, if you haven't finished the job already.
Check what corollacoaster said.
Plus the tensioner has a stop hole.
First look for the hole, move the tensiner tight... stick a 5mm Allen in the holes,
(there are two of them.)
Install the belt.
Remove the Allen.
Medusa?
She only had two hands......
Plus the tensioner has a stop hole.
First look for the hole, move the tensiner tight... stick a 5mm Allen in the holes,
(there are two of them.)
Install the belt.
Remove the Allen.
Medusa?
She only had two hands......
Yes i saw one video this morning where someone use a small doorknob pin to secure the tensioner but his tensioner was a different style. After that I went around looking for pics of my tensioner but I didn't see anything I could use. Anyone have a close up of those stop holes?? I'll look again to see if I can find something new. My only other option I though about was counterbalancing on my cheater bar enough weight to keep the tensioner down using my toolbox or sandbag. I'll report back after the job. Hopefully I'll find the stop the. Thanks for the tip !!!
Yes medusa had only 2 hands but her gaze was lethal ..
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Another person is helpful to hold the belt up and take out the slack while routing it around the pulleys. Also get under cause it can be miss routed between the crankshaft and A/C pulley.
Yea i know another person would be helpful but I don't have anyone. I almost wrangled a garbage man to act as my second pair of hands but I didn't want to throw off their schedule. I think tomorrow I'll try and counterweight method. I can't get under it..it along the curb with no wiggle room and it's cold as heck on the streets ( 34F)
I thought i found the stop hole but the screw I place in there snapped and now that hole has the residual in it. I'll see if it extracts tomorrow but it wasn't quite good enough becasue I still couldn't get it over the water pump pulley.
I had the same problem. What I did is removed the bottom alternator mounting bolt. That lowered the alternator just enough to get the belt over the alternator pulley lip. Then I raised the alternator to reinsert the bottom mounting bolt. Hope this helps.
Thanks labotech. I didn't think of that. I'll give thata try. I did discover that when repositioning the alternator one should not tighten down the alt mounting bolts before having them both engaged in the threading.
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This what I had to deal with.. Between pulleys 1 and 5 the belt wasn't routed point to point because of some obstruction which left no slack to complete the job. I had the car up on a ramp, had my wife pull up on the belt topside, and went under to route the belt correctly. I have a set of inexpensive ramps for oil changes, etc., which came in handy. If I had a stop hole, I was unaware of it, and just kept the slack out while I pulled the tensioner back to slip the belt over pulley 3. Good luck.
You can push the tensioner from the top.
Go to autozone get the belt tool for free, its long... wire tight the tool on the dog bone.....
But my advice is to do it from bellow, you need acccess and be able to see all the pulleys, I use a long 3/8 ratchet, and a14mm. If you don' have one, to extend, use a small pipe
Mine, is a V6
Most likely you installed the tool on the first hole.
Mercedes I can do them blind.
Camry... learning. Hahaha.
Regards,
500SL.
Go to autozone get the belt tool for free, its long... wire tight the tool on the dog bone.....
But my advice is to do it from bellow, you need acccess and be able to see all the pulleys, I use a long 3/8 ratchet, and a14mm. If you don' have one, to extend, use a small pipe
Mine, is a V6
Most likely you installed the tool on the first hole.
Mercedes I can do them blind.
Camry... learning. Hahaha.
Regards,
500SL.
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183 Posts
Yes, know that, I used a breaker bar and socket to retract the tensioner, but with one person it can get hairy. Like you said, you need a bottom view to see all the pulleys, and if you on your own, some type of clamp to keep the slack out till the belt is fully in place. You lost me on...wire tight the tool on the dog bone.You can push the tensioner from the top.
Go to autozone get the belt tool for free, its long... wire tight the tool on the dog bone.....
But my advice is to do it from bellow, you need acccess and be able to see all the pulleys, I use a long 3/8 ratchet, and a14mm. If you don' have one, to extend, use a small pipe
Mine, is a V6
Most likely you installed the tool on the first hole.
Mercedes I can do them blind.
Camry... learning. Hahaha.
Regards,
500SL.
The autozone tool is about 20" long.
Put it on the tensioner, push it towards the windshield.
Take a wire, tighten to the dog bone/upper engine mount.
I did that to replace the alternator, not ones but three.
(Defective...)
I don't know what engine you have.
Mine is a V6,
Belt fell, so I had to do it from the bottom, Is tight, but doable.
Pin the tensioner, When tentioner is almost at the end holes align up.
If I can do-it, you can...
Had to to use funny words... Lol.
Put it on the tensioner, push it towards the windshield.
Take a wire, tighten to the dog bone/upper engine mount.
I did that to replace the alternator, not ones but three.
(Defective...)
I don't know what engine you have.
Mine is a V6,
Belt fell, so I had to do it from the bottom, Is tight, but doable.
Pin the tensioner, When tentioner is almost at the end holes align up.
If I can do-it, you can...
Had to to use funny words... Lol.
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183 Posts
Mine is a 2.5 4 cyl, so retracting the tensioner is from fender to fender, and it's not such a hard procedure, just a little learning experience first time around.
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183 Posts
Sorry, got that wrong, you retract the tensioner on a 2.5,pulling from windshield to front of car, not fender to fender.
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