I have been trying without success to simply replace the belts on my FD.

First, couldn't find a parts place which knew the right belts to use on the car and kept insisting that it took 3 and not 2 belts.

Now that I have the belts, I am at my wits end in trying to get off one remaining pesky frozen nut. Unfortunately, it is the locking nut for the alternator adjustment belt.

Because of limited access to the bolt due to a big pipe extending from the engine, I had to use an open ended wrench to try and remove it. I pulled and pulled only to finally strip the nut slightly. Then I decided that patience is the way to beat this bolt so I took the next day plus spraying WD40 on the nut and then waiting and then spraying and waiting and spraying and.... well you get the picture. Still, a few days later and multiple numerous other attempts and now the nut is good and rounded. I guess my next option is to go and buy some locking pliars and just force the nut off somehow? Or I can use a dremel and try to cut the damn thing off. Or, maybe sell tickets to the neighborhood kids to use a sledge on the damn car and then a little C4 to finish it off on the 4th or July in a glorious blaze of pissedoffedness.

In the meantime, anyone else have any ideas? It looks like the big pipe extending from the turbo-carburator-engine? is held on with 4 bolts which I can access easily with a ratchet. Can I safely take this pipe off and then put it back on without needing some sort of gasket or other stuff? Maybe if I can take this pipe off I can still get a ratchet on the locking nut and get lucky enough to get it off sometime in the next year or so.

I've never been much of a mechanic but somehow thought that resurrecting my old FD was gonna be fun. I was very wrong so far.

HELP!

 

I would just use the dremel and cut it off.

 

What pipe are you talking about? The intercooler pipe? Take a picture. I didn't think that anything was in the way of the locking nut for the alt adjustment.

 

Here are some pics of my problem.

 

Try torching it for a bit to see if that frees it a bit.

 

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1...yword=bolt+out

 

Yeah the pipe in the way is the intake elbow. It's held on by 4 caps, just don't drop them. The seal between the throttle body and the elbow is an o-ring that shouldn't need to be replaced if you just take the elbow off.

 

go to home depot and buy reverse thread sockets...they have little teeth in the inside that cut into the nut as you try to remove the bolt. It will come right off. I had this problem on one nut on my strut tower.

 

Have you tried using vise grips...

 

^^^^ I'm guessing he couldn't because the intake elbow was in the way. But with that out of the way. . . .

 

just remove the elbow, will take you alot less time to do that then to fight around it all day long.

Get the sears 'nut extractor/bolt extractor' kit and you life will be cake.

 

this.

work smarter, not harder

 

Use a center punch so you can drill in the center without the drill dancing around.

 

In the future, for rusted nuts/bolts etc use PB blaster or something similar. Works waaay better than WD40 for that purpose.

 

+2. And get a can of PB Blaster. WD-40 does nothing.

 

Patience is a virtue when working on these cars....lots of easily broken parts in a small space.

 

Thank you very much for all the help and suggestions!

I got the nut off, using an old pair of locking pliars I had in the garage. Going to replace the nut with a new one but in the meantime,

how tight should the air pump, alternator belt be once all the bolts and tensioners have been loosened? The belt I have will not go on so I am guessing that it is once again the wrong belt.

I think I should just bite the time bullet and give Ray a call. I hate to do without a car for another 3-4 days but maybe that is the smart thing to do?

Thanks again!

 

Make sure you loosen the Air Pump or the belt wont go on... The airpump does quite a bit of the tensioning.

WHen you retighten in, the LONGEST part of the belt should have about 1/2" deflection if you press REAL hard on the center.

 

I checked the belt size, and apparently according to the specs for the previously suggested NAPA belt, it is the correct one. 17mm x 1327mm.

All the bolts and tensioners have been fully loosened and opened to their loosest positions. It didn't take much to move the air pump to that position once nuts were loosened. Seems like the original unloosened position for the air pump was almost at the loosest position it would go once loosened.

Is there a way or order to put on the belt which makes it go on? I have been trying putting it on all the ridged pulleys and then trying to put it on/along the pulley without ridges in the middle.

Should I use some sort of pry bar or tool to get it on?

In the meantime, I guess I can spend some time cleaning up and conditioning my new/used replacement seats and working on getting the animal nest out of the passenger floorboard. Got to make a new thread on this one.

Thanks again.

 

If you cant get it on with everything loose somethings wrong, it shoudl slip on and of easily.

I run it over everything and then the alternator last.

Make sure the alternator is at its lowest point as well.