I'm new to the board. I own an 89 convertible (or should I say an 89 convertible owns me!) with 58,000 miles and last night I lost the alternator belt, when I checked under the hood, it seems as though I almost have to remove the entire front end of the car to access the alternator because of all of the belts/pulleys in front of it. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Kindest Regards,

Alan

 

If I remember correctly, all you have to really remove is the fan clutch & fan. I don't have an air pump, but it shouldn't make a huge difference. You might have to remove the PS & AC belts as well - there are nuts on the top of the accessory mount for the tension adjustment, just loosen them and pop the belts off.

The hardest part will be removing the clutch fan. It's 10mm nuts, and the water pump tends to turn while you're trying to remove them. I found the best way is impact - put a closed end wrench on them, and hit them with a socket or such - knock the nuts loose, and then they're no problem to remove.

-=Russ=-

 

Actually, if you take two 10mm wrenches (one ratcheting boxend) you can use one to undo the nut, and the other as a prybar using the adjacent stud being removed as a pry point. At least thats what I did.

 

you dont have to take off the fan. you do have to be smarter than it though. and you do have to remove the other belts to put the alt belt on, the ac one is a pain

 

you don't have to put belts around the fan, you can put them through it. Don't ask me to explain this any better becasue i can't.

 

When i replaced my alt belt i had to remove AC belt Power stearing belt and some other belt

 

air pump belt