Diesel Rabbit... replacing belts????

Aug 24, 2003 2 Replies

I'm about to pull my hair out with this one... car is a 1984 Rabbit diesel.



bought a new A/C and waterpump belt for my rabbit the other day, and tried putting it on today. Old belt broke, so no need to take it off.



Just one question: How in the HELL are you supposed to loosen up the bolts on the A/C compressor bracket that slide up and down to adjust the belt??? I got one side loose, but there's no way to get a wrench on the other side. It's partially blocked by the compressor pulley. This is the stupidest design I've ever seen...



Anyone ever replaced one of these? HELP!



Also, I notced that the waterpump and crankshaft pulleys are severely mis-aligned. the're off by almost 1/4" Is there a spacer somwhere to fix this?



Thanks... Tony


My '81 wasn't too bad to do:

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Sounds like you have an incorrect pulley or something is put together wrong. Possibly the wrong offset water pump, there are a few different versions and different hub sizes (30mm and 40mm). They should line up perfectly, mine did.

On my father's '89 Ford escort the pulley on the water-pump pressed on and alignment adjustment was made by varying how far along the shaft the pulley was pressed on. I haven't had a look at my rabbit to see if the same may be the case.

Good luck, Rob > I'm about to pull my hair out with this one... car is a 1984 Rabbit > diesel.

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