Who designed this fricking belt routing 95 Riv NA

So i am stuck. Serpentine belt went bad on my 95. Those that have i believe a 97 (might be 96) won't understand the issue. The serpentine belt literally runs through the center of the passenger side of the motor mount. No issue i thought as you remove the nut on the lower stud , slap an E 10 on it pull the stud out and there is a 2 inch approx. spacer is supposed to drop out letting you reroute the new belt. Sadly not so simple. no room to pull the stud had to disconnect the mount anyway and lower the engine.... fine did that. stud is out go to slide out the spacer. there is a nut above it i cant get to to get it out of the way so it wont slide out. Thought about pulling the mount or at least loosening it and the 3rd support is behind the power steering pulley..... so i am at an impasse. anyone familiar with this setup know a trick to it? Its annoying enough i almost want to get rid of my 95 and that's saying a lot. I love my Rive just redid all the front suspension bushings and what not but this is crazy.
 

It's the same way for the 96-99. You have to jack the engine up, take all the bolts off the mount, then lower it so that the bolt with the spacer can come out.

Yep, you have the normally aspirated Series II engine like the supercharged 96-99. So just follow the FAQ/write-up in the Series II section for changing the belts.

The supercharged 95 Series I engine is an easier belt change though.

There is an E-Torx (I forgot which size) stud just right of the Crankshaft Dampener that holds the lower corner of that giant engine mount bracket in place. You can remove the nut, then remove the stud from the block. If you have a small pry bar, you can pry out on the bracket a little bit and remove the iron sleeve behind it. You can snake the belt out through there without removing that giant bracket. Don't go taking apart the whole car, you don't have to.

Go in through the passenger wheel well and remove the plastic right in front of the crank pulley. You'll see what I mean. You might want to unplug the Crank Sensor. Don't forget to plug it back in!!!

Thanks guys was really starting to bang my head against the fender.

One fast question is our tranny kick down cable or vacuum?

95-96 Vacuum

97-99 Electronic

Thanks i appreciate it haven't had a working kickdown since i got it (95 btw) guess ill go try and find it maybe setup a separate vacuum line if necessary. Sadly NA rivi with no kickdown and i still embarrass alot of other cars on acceleration.

Our forum needs a thanks button for those that are kind enough to respond. Especially with useful information

It's the

+
_
-

on the right of every post except your own

Maybe my chrome has an issue i see every button but that apparently

I think you need a minimum 50 posts to use the +/- function.

Ah ha. (posts 20+ 1 letter posts) j/k

The owner's manual states that the original belt should last 100,000 miles. I'm guessing we don't get that from any subsequent belts.

Honestly don't know on mine but I usually change mine at 50k miles regardless