My 93 4x4 4cyl. water,alternator and power steering belts are about
55,000 old. i inspected them and noticed they have small hairline cracks on the entire inner edge of the them but seem fine, do i need to replace them and if so could i do it mysef without braking some knuckles?also,how do you keep the tension while bolting them in place? thanks in advance
snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net (bobby F) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@storefull-3336.bay.webtv.net:
Just a little advice. If your alternator belt snaps your vehicle will be disabled until you replace it. That belt drives the water pump as well as the alternator & you will quickly overheat plus lose electrical charge to all vital components. If it LOOKS bad it proabably IS bad. Not really that much of a job but all three belts (if you have a\c) have to be removed. The a\c & power steering have simple idler pulleys that have to be loosened & 2 bolts on alternator( top&bottom). Good luck dc
Agreed. I change the belt when the old one looks, well, old. When I change the belt, I usually toss the old one under the seat, "just in case."
I said belt, because my '88 pickup has one, fan/water pump and alternator.
Just what is air conditioning and, uh, power steering??? :>))
10 year old belts ... I'd do them. Well within the capabilities of the do it yourselfer, although a few bloody knuckles seem to be part of the cost.
it's been a while since I did all of the belts on my '94 (motivated by the PS belt starting to come apart). Some of them actually have an adjusting bolt for tension, the water pump/alt. may require putting some leverage on the alt. with a stick or whatever. Note - I was VERY happy I got around to doing this as the inner (water pump/alt.) belt was about to crumble.
Be very careful with the alternator. When I worked as a mechanic, I saw more than one car come in with a damaged alternator from someone using a pry bar on the housing. Same with some power steering pumps and prying on the reservoir. I don't know about Toyota, but I seem to remember that some GM cars had a 1/2" square "hole" in the bracket that allowed you to use a 1/2" drive breaker bar to tension the belt.
-- Tom - Vista, CA
The age of those belts is one indicator that they need changing. The rubber does age, get hard, and fail more readily. Also, the hard rubber in the belts is more prone to slipping on the pulleys and causing wear there. Worn sides in the V-grooves requires that new pulleys get installed.
Ken
I don't think you'll find any sort of hole to tension the alternator but the power steering pump has a tensioner adjustment.
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