Tossed a belt...

There is a very good chance that the reason it threw the belt was the idler pully. These seem to fail more often than belts. Have him spin each of the pulleys and feel for one that is bound/binding. If bad, a new belt will be tossed just as quickly.

Yep, the small one is bad. Just to be sure...the bad pulley is the small grooved one. The smooth pulleys seem to be fine. All I need is the small one, right?

I'm digging around for some online instructions, having never replaced one of these before. It seems to be simple enough...once I figure out the belt pattern. I'm looking here:

Our car's pulleys don't match the 4...wehave the AC compressor in there. (The instrux linked from there areincomplete...what's the point of the block of wood and all that?) I also found this: is going to take me longer to read and comprehend than it tookthis guy to do. :-) Seems like he loosened everything, rather thanjust a tensioner.

-John O

John,

Yes, the upper left grooved idler pulley is the one that tends to go.

Here's an official SAAB document that shows the belt routing.

Also, here's one from the place where I do all of my online parts purchasing: eEuroparts is almost always the cheapest and has been extremely reliable and fast at shipping.

There is no need for a wood block. Once you flex the tensioner assembly (with a long 1/2" socket extension or a breaker bar turned sideways) there are two holes that will line up that allow you to stick a drill bit or allen wrench thru them to hold it in the "cocked" position.

This is a really easy job.

First, here's a page with the belt route - stock is the diagram on the LEFT:

The upper idler pulley that goes bad is the one shown at the top integrated with the tensioner. The break up after 50K miles - so next time replace it around 45K. It *is* worth checking the other pulleys for play as the water pumps in these wear and occasionally an A/C compressor goes. It is also possible that the lower idler pulley is bad (center of engine, bottom of left photo) but generally they last quite a while. To check the pulleys/accessories, just rock them with your hands. You'll be able to feel significant play in anything bad.

(Lots of us do the "short belt mod" shown on the right, I'll get back to that).

The instructions are the same for short or long (stock) belts. Click through the photos. Loosen the tension on the belt using a 1/2" drive as shown to pull the tensioner forward and lock it into place with a drill bit or thin screwdriver in the "lock it" hole. Unbolt the upper pulley, replace that pulley, pull the belt around the other pulleys and accessories in the proper route.

You may or may not have the Mass Air Valve shown depending on your motor but pull out the air filter box to get some room to work either way. You should remove the plastic cover behind the front right wheel (no need to remove wheel unless you want to, just turn it hard right). The only reason you need to remove the cover is that it is hard to get the belt around the crankshaft pulley without doing it. It's still tight/annoying getting the belt down there but stick with it, it can be done.

Once you get the belt right and the upper pulley replaced, just pull the tensioner forward with the 1/2" drive again to remove the tension from your "lock" bit, pull the bit out, and release the tensioner into position.

The first time you do this job it will probably take you an hour but the second time you can do it in 15 mins.

Las, but not least, many of us do the "short belt mod". In later years, Saab eliminated the center pulley (lower idler pulley) on the motor and used a shorter belt. Since the center pulley is a RPITA to replace, many owners of the earlier design just go to the belt mentioned at this web site. That eliminates one point of failure and saves time and money. (Yes, it is a safe mod, many many guys who drive their motors hard have done it and it works fine.)

Excellent!

Thanks Fred and Bob, these instrux are much better than what I found myself. Even *I* can follow those photos. ;-) Glad you added that last part about the belt mod...just looking at the diagrams it seems the only mechanical difference is the amount of grab on the PS pump pulley. But if Saab does it, it must be fine.

Local parts place had the original belt, but the idler pulley is on order. Glad this isn't a huge job with the weather we're having.

-John O

FWIW -- several years ago the tension idler on my 97 900 failed -- the entire bearing assembly crumbled -- at night, in January, in the mountains of east Tennessee. (And just past the 50K miles point...)

I was (barely) able to get off the interstate into the parking lot of a truck tire repair shop and (skipping much detail) later got a ride into Knoxville (~70 miles away) and back to buy a new idler and belt. The reason for this note is that I got the dealer there to print out the manual page showing the belt route -- and it didn't look anything like what I had to install. A little experimentation and lots of cusswords helped me reverse-engineer the path.

In my case the idler was completely broken; the actual pulley had nothing to connect it to the mounting bolt. Also (and something I've not seen noted in this thread) the inner (grooved) surface of the belt was melted, and had deposited its excreta into the grooves on the other pulleys. I suspect that the idler seized, then failed catastrophically. If the OP's belt shows this, check the grooved pulleys for contamination and carefully pry out enough of the mess to ensure that the belt gets a good grip on each pulley.

And especially if the replacement is being done outside a garage, it's worth making sure that you have a long rod (such as an old chicken band antenna) to push the (stiff) belt where it needs to go.

One side note: Last time I looked at a new Saab engine (in the showroom, waiting for a repair) the serpentine belt was buried under lots of engine-compartment devices. I asked the service people about it; they agreed that it was a major pain for them (in the shop!) to replace the belt, and (IIRC) carried a flat-rate charge of two hours.

(No, I don't recall the model involved.)

Joe Morris

I tell everyone to replace them at 45K... not everyone gets my advice early enough though...

:-)

Good point on the crud in the grooves of the other pulleys...I saw that when we removed the old belt and obviously it has to come out. I'm not much of a mechanic and don't have a lot of tools, so this job gave me an excuse to buy a breaker bar. Looks like it'll come in handy for two tasks.

Hopefully the pulley comes in today and then we'll have the new belt on right away. Bob, I'm going to trust my luck on the tensioner...car's at 115k miles, and I have no idea what's been done previously. Call me crazy if you must. :-)

-John O