ILRob

How do I loosen the belt to replace my alternator?

MonacaYankee

Skip to :47 seconds.

EZEARL

The adjustment is at the power steering pump. Just loosen the power steering pump rear mounting bolts, pivot bolt and lock nut and then loosen the power steering pump adjusting bolt.
Slip the belt on and tighten the adjusting bolt until you can push the belt in about one inch midway between the A/C and alternator pulleys. Then tighten the lock nut, pivot bolt and mounting bolts and that's it.

salad

On 97+ there's an idler pulley you manually adjust tension with.

Attachment 12091

The text is awful, so left to right the image is labelled 15mm tensioner bolt, 15mm idler pulley bolt, power steering pulley. This is viewed from the top with your gut on the grille.

The tensioner bolt moves the idler pulley up and down. First loosen the idler pulley. Back off the bolt in the center until it doesn't feel so tight. Then start backing off the tensioner bolt and you will see the belt start to go slack, and the pulley move.

ILRob

Thanks for the feedback. I got the belt loosened, alternator bracket off, trans lines out of the way, alternator out, salvaged one back in place with everything almost back together. Now my problem is I cannot get the top bolt (the long one) back in all the way. It will slip right in from the back but from the front it stops about an inch in.

Any input for this? And thanks again.

md21722

I'd suggest loosening up the other bolts and see if it you can them all in place before tightening. I'm not sure why the alternator bracket came out or the tranny lines were in the way. On my 01 XJ none of that was necessary. The hardest part is getting the right angle to get the old one out and new one in because the unibody frame rail is right there. The one good thing is that its almost impossible for the alternator to fall down and hit you on your head!

ILRob

Success! I had to have my cousin put a wrench and wiggle it back and forth as I pushed it in. Gauge is holding at just below 14, no squeaks, and nothing has fallen off. Last question...can I over tighten the belt and how would I know?

md21722

Yes, you can over tighten the belt. A belt too tight can cause premature wear in the bearings of any of the accessories connected to it. The "right" way to do set tension is with a tool that measures tension. Others use the old rule of whether or not you can twist the belt 90 degrees. If you can do 90, but no more or less, then its good. You can also look at the tensioner threaded shaft and see that the adjuster is where it used to be.

salad

My preferred method is to tighten it 'til it stops squeaking. Mission accomplished, least bearing wear.

Keep in mind that belts will stretch over time, and we don't have automatic tensionsers. So don't be surprised if you need to tighten again.