Seeking alternator belt removal trick - 300TD

[goldfinger]

This is ridiculous! I spent hours trying to finagle the alternator belts (2) from my '84 Germany model 300td. All I ended up with is the same old belts that are now squeeling like a couple of blind piglets being kicked around the middle of a county fair.

Power steering belt was no problem. The alternator, I hoped, would be just as simple...as it ought to be.

After loosening the bottom (pivot) bolt and the slotted/bolt-in-track, and pushing the alternator toward the engine, and discovering the tensioner bolt wasn't even threaded, not nearly enough slack was produced to lift a belt off the pulley. I tried everything in an objective and obvious sense to pry the alternator toward the engine but all that did was made the alt hit up against and stop at the engine block. Metal on metal doesn't seem to give any more.

I even removed the pivot bolt from below the alt. Even removed the alternator "harness" bolt and tried moving the whole assembly forward.

There must be some trick!

Please, enlighten me...

[t walgamuth]

cut the belt and be sure to buy the correct length belt when you buy. that one is obviously too small.

Tom W

[toomany MBZ]

I'm surprised it didn't fall out, after what you have done. I don't know if it will help, but there is another bolt you need to loosen, at least, I gained access with a ratchet on front, move the fan around, and open end on back, both 17mm as I recall, and loosened the threaded "L" bolt, you say is not attached, I think. Anyway, mine were replaced after an in correct replacement belt was purchased, albeit too long. At worst you'll have to remove the crank pulley I'm afraid. Or cut the darn things off, and get a closer belt size. This info is for U.S. cars. P.S. your sig is not showing.

[Douglas.Sherida]

Cut and pasted from another response I wrote on how to replace the alternator:

4) There are three bolts that hold the alternator on, all are 17 mm. Loosen all three (toward the rear of the car), then back the 13mm adjusting nut all the way out.

The one on the bottom (goes through a flange on the engine), can be cracked with an open end or box end wrench, and removed with a deep socket.

The inboard one on top is tough to reach. The bolt head is toward the rear of the car and the bolt goes through a flange on the engine block and is threaded into a nut welded to the alternator bracket. Crack the bolt with an open end or box end wrench and then back it out with a short socket, one ratchet click at a time.

The outboard one on the top only needs to be loosened with an open end or box end wrench at the nut towards the back of the car. The head of that bolt should have a long threaded stud coming of the side going to the 13mm adjusting nut.

5) Once you've loosened the two 17mm bolts and one nut, you can back the 13mm adjusting nut all the way out and slip the belts off the pulley.

[300SDog]

Yeah but does anybody even bother with "L" shaped adjusting bolt anymore? It's first on my list of parts to be pulled and thrown in the woods as useless.

Another method for pulling and installing fanbelts: wedge the belt off the pulley with screwdriver at about 10 o'clock position. Then kick the starter for 1 second burst, the belt will remove itself.

Same system works for installation of tight new fanbelts. Except instead of rolling the belt off the pulley at 10 o'clock, channel it there instead. And deffinitely junk the "L" shaped adjust nut combo says me. Caint figure out any useful purpose it serves aside from always gittin bent outa shape and stressing the alternator adjust at weird angles. Better idea is pry the alt away from the block manually for tightening the belt.

[kerry]

I concur with the idea of cutting the belts and getting ones slightly longer. However, the advice on this thread assumes all tensioner systems are the same on these cars. I have seen at least two. One involves a threaded tensioner bolt attached to the head of another bolt and the other is a toothed system running along the bottom bracket. Yours sounds like the toothed system which, once the bottom bolt is loosened, can be turned and cranked towards the engine block.
I have rolled belts on and off pulleys many times. However, I recently read that using that procedure damages the belts by inducing high stress at one time. I've never had any problems using that method but I can see how it could damage the belt.

[toomany MBZ]

I have seen two different adjusting bolts, one with a gear type affair, only in pics. I have utilized the threaded "L" bolt on a few occasions. (both of my current cars) Most are bent some, and very expensive to replace, or have the proper bolt and threaded rod welded. If all else fails, just do as DieselDog suggests, and wedge apart and tighten one of 'em down.

[goldfinger]

Thanks for the insights. Personally I like the cut and paste method best using slightly longer belts than the installed. Hopefully that will solve the problem quick and proper. Have a great weekend ya'll. Aloha

[Brian Carlton]

Originally Posted by goldfinger

Thanks for the insights. Personally I like the cut and paste method best using slightly longer belts than the installed. Hopefully that will solve the problem quick and proper. Have a great weekend ya'll. Aloha

I'll join the same club that has alternator belt problems. The '84 SD calls for a 1000 mm belt with the smaller water pump pulley. However, it's virtually impossible to get it installed or removed for the same reasons as mentioned. All alternator bolts are loose and the unit cannot move further inboard toward the engine.

So, what I did to use the brand new belts was to remove the fan and it's pulley........install the alternator belts in the V-groove.........and reinstall pulley. There's plenty of slack to do this..........you simply can't get the V-belts installed after it's bolted up. The time to accomplish is about 15 minutes or so...........struggling with the existing setup took hours without success.