Technical 2.4 Air con - Alternator Belt

[Maxcaddy]

I've spent the afternoon failing to fit a new Aircon/Alternator belt on. I managed to get the old one off in one piece, but the new one just won't spring on. So much so I thought maybe it was a non-stretch belt, so I then tried to get the old (Dayco stretch) belt back on, and failed miserably with that as well .

After reading up on here all that's been said about changing the belt, I am no further forward other than there's a reference to a Tool that's needed, although someone else has said there wasn't enough room to use the Tool .

There is also a guide whereby you have to slacken the Alternator fixing to get it on - is that the only option ?

I think it will 'wind on' as is, but there's an Aircon pipe right in the way of where you need to get yer hands

Any good words of help or advice would be gratefully received.

.

 

[Abarth L]

This belt is so difficult to put on, as if Fiat used the same guy who designed the position of the front bulbs, which almost require removing the engine to change the front bulbs ?

Loosening the Alternator bolts give no extra room.

Loosening the aircon 3 bolts does help a bit, very little almost not woth the effort!
Don't remove them if you want try this option, then tention so great you can't fit them back and will end up damaging the thread.

It is a stretch belt, although the amount of force is great which can cause injury if your plan to stretch the belt over the pulley slips, so be thoughtful and carefull.
I have never seen a tool.

I could only managed it with the help of another when I did it with the engine in the car.
When the engine were out, I did it alone, but tried all combinations of loosing bolts etc. and had the advantage of the aircon bolts loose (not out)

 

[Maxcaddy]

Many thanks, but I'm not sure if I'm any further forward, or frightened off

 

[Ralf S.]

You have to always bear in mind one thing.. when they build the beast in the factory, they don't spend hours assembling each bit of tricksy component.. so there is a way to do this that takes 90 seconds. It may involve taking the engine out of the car... but apart from that small consideration, it must be a 90-seconds job.

Alternators usually have a fixed bolt and a slotted bolt. If you loosen both, it should pivot closer to the driving pulley (power steering maybe, on a 2.4) which will give you enough slack to hook the belt over the pulley.

I dunno for sure if that's definitive.. but I've never seen any alternoator that didn't have this arrangement, except on my JTD (where the alternator belt is tensioned by a spring tensioner - the 2.4 alternator belt doesn't appear to have a spring tensioner, so the slot arrangement is also the tension adjustment mechanism).

Have a look to see whether there is a slotted hole. How you get to it, to loosen it and re-tighten it again.. may involve taking the bumper off etc.


Ralf S.

 

[Abarth L]

The reason why the Alternator will not move if you just loosen the bolts can be seen in the picture.

So follow the instructions I have just compiled.

Note! Be careful when wedging the Alternator back up so you can insert the bolt, not to damage the thread on the bolt.

 

[Maxcaddy]

Excellent photos, if only mine was on an engine stand .

The protruding front chassis member that goes right cross where the belt goes onto the Alternator is the offender, and getting yer hands onto the belt to turn it was where I was struggling. Of course it wasn't helped by the fact I'd skinned two knuckle joints a few days earlier on the outside off the exhaust cam sprocket when changing the timing belt .

What didn't help was that I'd been working from the bottom upwards, and probably if I can get something to guide the belt while I turn the Alternator with a spanner from the top, I might get it to go on. Unfortunately I won't be back to play with it again until the end of next week, but if I do get it done I'll be bragging about it here .

Worse case I'll slacken the Alternator, but I take note of what's said re the fixings, and I'd have to see what anchor points there are to get a lever in to get it back into place afterwards.

.

 

[Ralf S.]

I remember changing a belt on something(?) once where one alternator bolt had to come out so that the alternator could rotate around the other, similar to Abarth's photos.

Apart from the alternator still wouldn't rotate (a cup of tea and two Mr Kipling Bakewell tarts made me remember I hadn't loosened the bottom bolt after my success in removing the top bolt.. ) the biggest faff was actually removing the top bolt.

It was just long enough to foul on the chassis cross-member.. Ahhhh Ahhhh and in the end the only way to remove it was to remove the engine mount and dangle the motor down on a trolley jack a couple of inches, so the bolt could come out under the cross member.

After that, it was quite simple... So.. just dismantle as much of the car as needed... it's easier in the long run, even if it takes you six weeks instead of 6 minutes.


Ralf S.

 

[Maxcaddy]

The reason why the Alternator will not move if you just loosen the bolts can be seen in the picture.

So follow the instructions I have just compiled.

Note! Be careful when wedging the Alternator back up so you can insert the bolt, not to damage the thread on the bolt.

So, 2 weeks later and I've now got the Alternator belt on . A complete bitch of a job, and only succeeded by following Abarth L's guide. Fortunately I had a handy Screwfix tool for pivoting the Alternator back into place

Of course it wasn't straightforward , whilst the top bolt came out easily, the bottom one was a nut and bolt and once loosened wouldn't tighten up. I spent most of the morning trying to get in behind the Alternator with a variety of sockets and box spanners to hold it but all to no avail.

Anyway once it was all together and with a new aux drive belt as well, I started it up. Of course the battery had gone flat and when that was replaced initially the ASR and ESP lights came on , but have since gone off after running it a while.

If I can get 40-50 thousand out of the new cam belt, and hopefully the 2 others will last that long as well, I'm doubtful there'll be much of a car left to ever think of doing it again .

 

[Maigretnz]

Sorry. Didn't notice this thread earlier. I made a Guide including how to make the tool to fit it.

https://www.fiatforum.com/stilo-guides/423205-fitting-stretch-alternator-belt-2-4-motor-abarth.html

It is a lot less work to make the tool (or have it made) than dismantling half the car.

 

[Maxcaddy]

No Worries, I did see your post and the one about using a ‘tool’ to wedge the alternator back into place, which is exactly the way to go.

However I didn’t get any joy out of the ‘Cut down Broom Stick’ at all , so I used a Screwfix https://www.screwfix.com/p/roughneck-17lb-post-hole-digger/62496 which fits snugly into the top of the Alternator, and with a gentle push eases the alignment of the top hole/fixing back into place .

 

[Maigretnz]

I didn't touch the alternator at all. The tool I made simply rolls the belt back on to the pulley.

 

[kucho]

not a 2.4, but a 1.9, but I had to take out the engine support to be able to move the engine up and down to access several screws with my tools.