ac vbelt replacement 740 gle

hi, i just bought a volvo! yay! so, it's 740 gle wagon. the ac isn't working, but when i checked under the hood, the v-belt was missing. can you tell me how easy it is to put the belt on myself? thanks! jun

Reply to
g13
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If the belt isn't there, there's a lot more wrong with the A/C than just a missing belt.

That said, the compressor has 2 tensioners, one front and one rear. The front one has a long bolt coming in from the side to enable easy belt tensioning. The bolts are coach bolts, so no wrenches needed, nuts should be 13 mm. You need a 6 inch wobble extension or a universal joint to access the rear nut. And in my climate it's likely the aforementioned long tensioner bolt is seized and will break.

Once you get the belt on, then you can try to find out why the belt was removed in the first place.

Reply to
Mike F

It's a typical job, although there are bolts at the front and back of the compressor that have to be loosened to swing the compressor so the belt can be put on and tensioned. The rear bolt is not real easy to get to but not awful.

The bigger question is why the belt is missing. Try turning the pulley on the compressor by hand to make sure it turns smoothly. If not, the bearing in the clutch is bad and the belt was removed to compensate.

Mike

Reply to
Michael Pardee

Perhaps the prior owner removed the belt in order to avoid the parasitic loss of power which running the AC causes.

Reply to
zencraps

Don't be silly, why would anyone do that? They could just turn off the AC, besides this isn't a racecar, the drag really isn't bad and WELL worth it for nice cold air on a hot date.

As others have commended, the AC system is 99% sure to be dead. If the compressor still turns freely then it can be repaired, it will need all new O-rings, a flush, retrofit kit from Volvo, new reciever/dryer and possibly a new hose or two. You can usually fix it for a few hundred bucks total, depending on how much of the work you can do yourself.

Reply to
James Sweet

Silliness has little to do with my observation.

Some people DO disable working AC to end parasitic loss of engine power, especially if they live in climates where AC is not a necessity of life.

You must know nothing of performance / hot-rodding tips.

Pity.

Reply to
zencraps

There's already a switch on the dash to disable the AC, when you turn it off the compressor is not driven and you have negligible drag.

I know plenty about performance and hot rodding, several buddies are into rally racing and I've spent plenty of time under the hood of my own turbocharged 242 but that's irrelevant, this is a 3100 LB Volvo luxury car with a whopping 114HP four cylinder engine and automatic transmission, good car yes, but hot rod? Give me a break, the AC is the least of the obstacles to making that thing go fast.

My own observation, I've worked on dozens of Volvos, I've *never* seen a

700 series older than '91 in which the original AC still worked without being overhauled. I've also *never* seen the belt removed from working AC. What I have seen numerous times are seized AC clutches which then seized the unlubricated compressor in a long dead AC system and threw the belt.
Reply to
James Sweet

Interesting, performance / hot rodding and Volvo 740 gle (almost) in the same sentence.

Richard Web pages:

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- caravanning,
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- personal web site and
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I loves the domain name for email.

Reply to
Richard Cole

Oh, please.

A PO could be a starry-eyed 18 year old who inherited the staid Volvo from his parents.

God knows what go-fast tricks he or others may have heard of.

Oh yeah, youth, being youth, expect to be able to make a silk purse of a sow's ear.

Vroom vroom

Reply to
zencraps

Although if the A/C is turned off and the clutch bearing is okay, the drag is nearly nothing. A good clutch is essentially an idler pulley until the clutch is engaged.

Of course, the previous owner may not have understood that.

Mike

Reply to
Michael Pardee

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