Write-Up: Replacing Belts and Pulleys

I don't know Bill, he mentions tensioner pulley only, not idler.

Well Dave I see your point.

Either way.. if you have to replace the pulley behind the mount, it can be a pain. If not, I would leave the mount on and route the belts. Another trick of mine with or w/o the mount off is to route the belts and tension them. Then put the mount back in.

Should changing the belts on a 95' be the same as the newer models in the walkthrough?

mostly. But you don't have to remove an engine mount. its like a 5 min job on the 95.
and if you do any pulleys, there are none that are left hand thread.

changed my lower sc idler and belt today. Took 2hrs and 45min. Thanks for the write up. It helped. Carquest has the pulley for $20 part#38007

Do I need to remove Engine mOunt to just change sc bely and drop sizes on sc pulley

not sure on a 96. I am sure that on 97 and later there is a ferrule in the mount - take off the pass side tire and the inner fender then just look at the engine - it is the lower right hand bolt. Clean the grease off the engine tehn remove the bolt. You may need a wood block on a jack to hold up the engine so bolt slides easy. Anyway with that bolt out you can get the SC belt off/on no problem.

Albertj

Just my advice - you have to raise and lower the engine to get that lower engine mount bolt out. Don't use a floor jack/block of wood. Use a hoist if at all possible from above. I ruined my oil pan gasket by jacking the engine up and down for the belt change.

I agree wtih Derek. It actually is pretty easy to mess up the OP gasket by jacking the engine at the pan. If you must, the 'trick' is to make the contact area between the block and the jack as big as possible and check torque on the oil pan bolts while it is up. What happens is the gasket can crush a bit, depending on composition, then will leak when the weight's off.

If you want to try hoisting I have heard of this but not done it - use a sawhorse set and some 2x4s to make a frame you can set over the engine (resting on the car's frame) and use a come-along with chain on the end to hoist the engine. I was told that this worked since you are not removing the engine, just holding the weight still while messing with one of the mounts. I kind of think the guy (a sprint car racer where I work) was pulling my leg but it seems plausible.

Albertj

I also jacked on the oil pan... now have a small leak. Enough that it accumulates into a drop hanging there, that never seems to fall off. I have zero oil on my garage floor.

The drop falls off elsewhere when you are moving.

There's other ways to gasket that oil pan other than the rubber/cork ones used...

Albertj

albertj wrote:

The drop falls off elsewhere when you are moving.


Albertj

Well of course it does. Just is unusual that it never falls off in the garage or driveway. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it, unless I start seeing it on my floor.

Thanks for reminding me... I meant t check my oil pan yesterday. this time change has me messed up- not much daylight after work

Thanks for the writeup.

Is it necessary to have the E10 Torx? I have torx drivers but don't know much about them or what E10 stands for.

Luckily I talked my fiance into driving the Riv rather than the gas guzzling 14mpg v8 Grand Cherokee. I'd like to get the belts replaced soon along with the fuel gauge to have it in tip top shape.

manofmany wrote:

Thanks for the writeup.

Is it necessary to have the E10 Torx? I have torx drivers but don't know much about them or what E10 stands for.

Luckily I talked my fiance into driving the Riv rather than the gas guzzling 14mpg v8 Grand Cherokee. I'd like to get the belts replaced soon along with the fuel gauge to have it in tip top shape.

E Torx= external torx. its basicly just a socket. any auto part store with a decent tool section will have them. what year is your riv

Gotcha. Less than $5 I suppose?

It's a 97

yeah 5 or 6 bucks should cover both of them. i was goin t use 12 point sockets cause they would fit. but i didnt want t chance stripping the bolts. its a nice little task and any headache u can avoid the better. while ur replacing the belt you should replace the lower sc idler. you'll be glad u did after you shut the hood and its all finished

so can i replace both belts without removing the dumb mount? or at least one of the belts?

No.

That's right Dale, you do NOT have to remove the engine mount if you are only replacing belts. You DO have to remove it if you want to replace all of the pulleys in the system at the same time. I did all my pulleys too, so I pulled the mount. It really isn't that bad of a job, but I would not do it in my frozen garage in the winter.

1998 Riv wrote:

That's right Dale, you do NOT have to remove the engine mount if you are only replacing belts. You DO have to remove it if you want to replace all of the pulleys in the system at the same time. I did all my pulleys too, so I pulled the mount. It really isn't that bad of a job, but I would not do it in my frozen garage in the winter.

The old belt was really noisy and I just could not live with it until spring.

I started into it, and after removing the axis mount I realized that wasn't going to be good enough to remove that belt, referred to this thread and after reading what was involved in taking that bracket out I was bummed.

So, after looking at it closer I figured out that I only needed to do so much to change that belt. At the time I thought I was a genius.

Next summer when it is warmer I will be more willing to go the full 9 yards with it and replace the lower pulley and accessory belt.

Last night, I found the directions in my service manual, and GM suggests removing the lower stud and temporarily putting the axis mount back in, lowering the engine to open up the gap and remove the spacer.

I have a wood stove in the garage, and while over time it will get things toasty, I didn't want to invest that much time in it yesterday.

Learning is part of the fun right?

Sweepspear wrote:

Learning is part of the fun right?

Knowledge is power... And gettin my hands dirty is fun too.

just did mine for the first time 2day only took me about 3.5 hours! lol

Just did mine, belts + 2 pulleys and sc tensioner( whole bracket with pulleys) all ACdelco parts( meybe beside one belt) - 500 bucks in Chicago. Had to do it, it's too cold out here to play with it outside, and I got it to mechanic having only half of my belt in place . How much does it cost elswhere guys??
Andrew

Does anyone know if it is absolutely necessary to remove the whole power steering pump to get to the lower idler pulley or can the correct amount of access be gained by just removing the power steering pump pulley? (With the correct puller of course)