Hey All,

Last night on the way upto Macca's my 2g TR 4cyl Auto packed it in. Basically steering went really hard and engine power lost also.
I managed to pull her over and had a quick look (it was very dark and didnt have a torch) but i was able to identify that the alternator belt had snapped off. Unsure if other belts gone but dont think so.

Can anyone on here advise me on if this is an easy DIY job to simply replace?

I hope to just put a new one on where the car is parked at the moment so i can at least get her home to inspect further.

I also need to know if these belts are also easy to purchase from Repco, Supercheap auto etc.. and not something i need to hunt around for or take to a workshop. Does anyone know?

I'm hoping that this is all that is wrong with the car as i was quite a distance from home and towing it back will cost heaps.

Thanks

Yep its an easy fix and the belt should be easy to come by at your local repco/supercheap etc. If I remember correctly you will need to remove the other belt running the water pump as well to be able to put the new one on. To remove the belts you need to find the adjustment bolts for the pulley. It should consist of 2 bolts, you loosen the first bolt (That is holding the second bolt in place) then as you loosen the second bolt the pulley will drop down slowly. Keep loosening them until you can fit the new belt around them (or remove the belt on there if you are removing it), then tighten them back up the same way. There needs to be a little bit of slack in the belt, but not too much. If you hear a high pitched squealing when the car is running (esp on initial startup/cold startup) it is likely that the belt needs to be tightened).

It would be ok to drive home if you were close to home (Although I read that you are not, so this is more just for reference sake for other people) as you would have no alternator/power steering. Power steering is not vital lol but they are a barge without them. And if you are within 20mins of home you should be able to last the journey before losing battery power (providing the battery is not screwed). This was excellent design to not run the water pump of the same drive belt, as there's no way you would drive a car without a functioning water pump.

BUT before driving make sure the belt is not still there, or any pieces of it are floating around.... This caused a major problem when it happened to me, as a piece of the old belt got wedged between the bottom pulley and an oil seal and busted the seal. Oil went everywhere, splattered all over the alternator, fried that, which in turn somehow fried the ecu... was a pain in the ass to fix! lol.

One more piece of advise, check the water pump belt too as it's likely that the previous owner changed them both at the same time, so it might be just as old/worn as the belt that has already snapped.

Good luck with it mate:)

Hi,
Just did one the other day on Mums TR. You have to take the air conditioner belt off aswell, Which is a pain. I had to take the front left wheel and a plastic cover facing the motor off to get to the bottom pulley on the motor. Just loosen the adjuster on the alternator, and the adjuster on the A/C belt, look between the Powersteering Hoses (its a smallish pulley with a largish bolt showing from the top) and pull the belt off the accessories first and then get under the wheel arch and moneuvere them of the motor's pully. Installion is reverse of this.

Pretty Easy to DIY, just abit time consuming.
Belts are easy to get from autobarn/repco.

Hope this helps
Cheers
Chris

Dougal, check your other drive belts too for heavy cracking and or missing chunks out of the belt. Personally, I'd just replace all of them at once, and you know 100% you won't be in this situation again for a VERY long time.

Guys thank you heaps for the replies on a sunday morning.

I will play it safe and tow my girl home and replace all the belts. I reckon they would all need replacing anyway and at the same time i can re-check any other worn items.

From memory i recall that i was hearing a slight whining noise yesterday arvo so its likely that it was on its way out and was telling me this by the noise.

Mate i love this car and just got it back running after replacing all the struts, springs and redoing that air intake system. This car is worth all the pain its given me as it purrs so nice for a 4cyl auto.

To my fortune i just bought a TE v6 manual as a 2nd 'work in progress' but i cant drive it till its got rego done.

Good thing my girlfriend does not mind driving me around whilst i get the TR fixed.

Cheers all happy Sunday!

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh59/magnabuff/altadjustment.jpg

fitting the alternator and airconditioning belts

passengerside near the distributor

you have to slacken off the through bolt of the idler pully tensioner through nut-- a 14 mm eneough for the
the longer adjuster bolt to slacken off the for the tensioner to move down so you can get eneough slack to remove the belt

see picture
then moving to the front of the car undo the 14 mm lower secururing bolt of the adjuter a 14 mm - 3
slacken off a few turns of the through bolt holding the alternator to the block - 2
then unscrew the longer threaded bolt to take the tension of the alternator and powersteering belt -1

fitting both belts is harder start at the crank pully and fit and retighten
the alternator adjuter nut

then with a bit of pressure make the air conditioning belt fit back onto the idler pully and compressor ( a large scewdrive helps because there is not much room between the chassis and the engine retighten tensioner

go not over tighten the belts because they can snap
make sure the is some minimal deflection /slack on both belts]

Hey All,

Many huge thanks for the info. This morning had the girl towed home ($90 mates rates) and managed to follow all the directions you good people gave me. Also referred to the trusty service manual too.

I've replaced both the Alternator belts and A/C belt also. The alternator belt had striped into one long piece nearly 2 mtrs long and there were bits of belt all over the engine bay, was interesting finding all the bits that had busted. Probably the trickiest part was getting access via the passenger side wheel arch. It was a real messy job but after 3 coffee's and a big breakfast it all seemed fairly easy.

New belts are fited nicely (no loose free play but not overly tight either. All in all it took about 6 hours.

Just for good measure i drove the car slowly around to my girlfriends step father who owns a Mercedes workshop.
He double check the work i had done and gave it the thumbs up!
He reckons he the injectors could use a clean. He said he would not charge me to do so. Which is awesome.

Thanks again all

These belts shred easily if they are not sitting on the pulley correctly. If one of the ribs sits on the edge rather than in the pulley, they don't last long. Properly installed though, they go for at least 150,000 km before cracks appear across the ribs. Worth a quick check with a torch to see if they are sitting on all the pulleys correctly. Just for your peace of mind. They will need tensioning up in a few thousand km, as they bed in. You might hear a squeal when you turn the wheel to full lock or turn the air condition on.

Good advise MadMax.

I cant afford to keep towing her home ($90 is not alot of money but wasted if i havent checked these things properly)

I'll check in the morning. I reckon the belt is on correctly but i will play it safe and re-tension as you recommended.

No squel yet but as its new and needs to bed in properly i might hear it tmrw when starting up cold.

Cheers!

Takes a couple of weeks/months for them to bed in, you will hear the squeal when you least expect it, to tell you to tighten them a bit.