After the first 185K miles, my belt tensioner was clearly going bad, belt starting to "run off" and it was noisy & jammed: I've replaced these before on many other cars but when the parts guy brought me the box I thought the wrong part, since it was 4 times too big. It wasnt:


The belt tensioner assembly turns out to be also part of the bracket that mounts the Alternator and water pump, and has 2 coolant passages on it with 2 hose connections plus 2 other coolant connections to the block itself.... It's a HUGE casting and comes with 4 "O" rings and the plastic elbow tha takes the clloant back into the block. This replacement starts with draining the coolant, removing the alternator, and removing 2 heater hose connections, both of which were "welded" closed, then the plastic elbow broke off inside the block, etc.. This turned into a 4 hour ordeal of frusration, only due to the coolant connections that had become so stuck in place it took alot of time and finesse to remove them without distorting the thin metal fittings, etc. It went back together pretty easily compared to removal.


A real nose bleed, compared to the two bolt mounted belt tensioners most cars have, this one was a real surprise, but all worth it, in 185K miles I expect something to wear out after a while! I really didn't want that to let go while cruising along, or somewhere in Manhattan NY, or some isolated part of PA. Now that I've sen what it takes to replace, I'm even more glad Idid it before it went entirely!


Ozone Ranger.