1997 Buick Park Avenue

Nope, the belt installation CAN be that difficult. You have to loosen the motor mount, jack up the engine,and replace the belt ON SOME MODELS.

Hells Holiday Inn is booked up for a select bunch of GMengineers. Dont bother to request a reservation

On Fri, 20 Apr 2007 20:00:12 -0400, "Bishoop" wrote: Could you add more detail? Are you referring to the "mount to frame" connection or the "mount to engine 3 bolt" connections? Also the belt appears trapped within the 3-pronged engine mount bracket. I know the lower bolt has a removable spacer for access, but the upper connection is a stud---if this were a bolt and by removing it the bracket would be free to pull away from engine slightly to slip belt thru....??..Bob

The lower bolt (really a stud with a nut on it) and spacer is where you want to remove the belt. This is actually fairly simple. You can loosen the upper nut, don't bother with the one that is behind the ps pulley unless absolutely necessary. Now go down to the lower bolt/stud (pulling the right wheel and splash shield give you much better access), remove the nut, remove the stud (the end of the stud is an inverted torx), and remove the spacer. You will notice that the weight of the engine will bow the lower part of the mount out slightly when you remove the nut. This makes it easy to remove and re-install the spacer. Once the spacer is out, belt comes out easily.

Ian

Yikes, that is nuts. Yesterday I helped my friend replace the serpentine belt, belt tensioner and idler wheel on his the Grand Marquis. It took more time to go to the auto parts store to buy the parts than it did to do the job. Belt changeover is a less than five minute job, and should be.

GM has engineered difficult maintenance into many of their modern vehicles. Our 2002 Olds minivan required removing the upper engine mounts and rotating the engine forward just to get at the rear spark plugs. Don't they have any maintainability engineers looking after the details???? They seem to have the idea that "oh well, belts and spark plugs last a long time these days, so no reason to make the job reasonably easy".

Thanks for such a detailed instruction. Thought I'd let you know a problem we encountered removing the stud. It measured 5 and 1/2 inches long and the sleeve was 3 1/2. Had to drill a hole in the metal behind to turn the stud all the way out. Again, many Thank's