1999 LeSabre Serpentine belt replacement

[Joshsnider]

I've got a '99 LeSabre with an old serpentine belt on it. A friend of mine was trying to help me replace it with a new belt, but we could not figure out how to adjust the auto-tensioner.
Most cars have a 3/8" slot for loosening the tension. I didn't see any thing like that around the tensioner. There really wasn't any apparent mechanism at all for loosening.
Does anyone know if there's something we're missing? Otherwise we'll loosen the bolt on the tensioner with a wrench, but we're not too comfortable with that idea, because it'll take a lot of force, and something could feasibly break...

Josh

 

[imidazol97]

I've got a '99 LeSabre ... but we could not figure out how to adjust the auto-tensioner. Josh

The tensioner has a spring that holds it against the belt for the proper tightness. Those sometimes age letting the belt slip easier than it should. The tension is pulled away from the belt by using the nut on the hub. It's a reverse thread, so pulling on it tightens it and lifts it away from the belt.

Has a new belt been put in place? The motor mount is a three-point setup. The lower leg has a spacer held by a stud that is removable. That lets the belt come out through that space.

Good luck.

 

[Enslow]

Here's a hint for that spacer: File the edge slightly to make reinstallation easier.

It would look something like this:
________________
/ |
|_______________/

I had to do this to reinstall the spacer.

Also, I don't believe the motor has to be supported when the spacer is removed. However, if you do, use a good piece of 2x6 on the oil pan. I used a piece of 3/4 plywood between my floor jack and oil pan thinking it would be good enough. I dented my oil pan.

 

[Joshsnider]

Great, this is very helpful. We haven't even cut the old belt yet, because we wanted to be sure that it's the nut on the hub that loosens the tension before we started pulling on it.

When we initially looked in, we noticed there were some things that needed to be disconnected in order to slip the new belt in. But it's good to get some specifics from you guys as to what those things are.

Spacer on lower leg of motor mount. Got it.

My friend is the mechanically inclined one, so I'll let him know.

Thanks.

 

[redmondjp]

Let me caution you on this - I have seen more than one of these tensioners frozen in position. If this is the case, and you try to move the tensioner arm by using a wrench (box-end or socket only) on the bolt head on the tensioner pulley, you could easily snap it off. So put moderate tension on the wrench, and if the wrench starts turning but the tensioner arm doesn't move, STOP!

The frozen condition can sometimes be rectified by spraying something like PB-blaster, Kroil, or WD-40 into the spring chamber on the tensioner (at the base of the tensioner arm), and then slowly attempting to loosen it.

Good luck!

 

[imidazol97]

You do not need to cut the old belt. After it's off the tensioner, you can wiggle it out through the opening after the spacer is removed. That way if there's a problem, you'll still have the old belt to put back on.

The spacer is on the bottom of the trio of a three point support. The engine weight wouldn't appear to be forcing pressure against that spacer, in my judgement.

I noted that the FSM didn't recommend supporting the engine by the oil pan. I had my dealer do the belt at 60 or 70 K. I watched how they did it. They did not remove the right front wheel. They turned it full right. They put a jack under the left side of the engine subframe and lifted it. That pulls up on the other side of the engine and away from the spacer.

They took off the splash shield and worked past the tire.

I did my next belt, and supported the right side with a jackstand. Took the tire off. And jacked up the left side with the jack higher than the right side. My spacer tapped out easily with a ball peen hammer.

My spacer had both ends tapered with bevels. That looked to be factory design on mine. Maybe the dealer tapered them when he had it off. The tapered ends do make for easier reinstallation. But it goes in fairly easily.

Note that there is a lock nut on the base of the stud. The stud end has a female torx fitting. Others said a regular socket would catch on the torx to remove.

My nut and stud were rusted together. Loosening the nut loosened the stud. Easy.

Good luck with your replacement.

 

[Joshsnider]

Thanks, all this info is VERY helpful!

Josh