Hi,

Can anyone tell me how to mount a serpentine belt for the car in the subject line?  About 3-4 years ago, an uncle of mine and I had to install this belt because the tensioning pully seized.  At the time we had no idea how to sequence the belt and our only reference was his car which has the exact same engine.  We were drinking a few beers and after a couple of hours we figured it out.

Now, this time the belt was very near failure and needed to be replaced again.  The box I bought the belt in had a diagram of the belt sequence.....piece of cake right?  WRONG!! Again I went to my Uncle's house because it is simply easier to work on a car there.  Here is the problem I hope someone can help me out with..........

Between the drive pully and the A/C compressor, there are 2 engine mount brackets.  The belt has to run below the lower bracket from the drive pully to the A/C pully.  Then from the A/C pully it runs to the alternater, down to the hydraulic pump, up and over top the tension pully, then curves around the water pump pully and completes the trip runnig back down to the drive pully.

Here's the problem......we can't figure out how to get one side of the belt under the bottom bracket and the other side of the belt to go above the bottom bracket but below the top bracket.  It would seem the only way to accomplish this is to remove one or both engine brackets....something I'm very reluctant to do.  Further, I know for damn sure we did it once before (replace the belt).......I can't do anything sober!

There has got to be a "trick" doing this.  If anyone can help me figure out this problem, I would be extremely grateful.

If you need to ask further questions.....actually I don't know how this site works, please do.

Thank you to anyone who can assist me.

Once again, we did NOT remove the engine bracket(s) the last time we did this.

Thanks,

Gene

 i've gone through the same problem and so i decided to do a little bit of research to avoid the mount problem. as i see it there are two more solutions, one is tested the other is in theroy. first the tried one is that you can remove the long pin like part of the mount w/o too much trouble with only a couple of tools and the removal of the front driver side tire and panel behind the tire to acces the part easily. then it should be no problem. or in theroy you can mount the belt in a different fassion. follow the diagram for a 1988 buick and it should work all the same so there's no need to remove the mount or any pieces. i hope this can help any one who has the same dumb design for a car.

I just replace the serpentine belt on my 1997 Buick LeSabre and it was much easier than I had anticipated. I did not have to remove the engine mount and the whole process takes about 90 minutes.

1. Remove the front wheel on the passenger's side along with the access panel behind the wheel. At this point, you should be able to see the bottom of the crankshaft and the belt through the wheel well.

2. Find the point where the lower engine mount bracket is attached to the engine. Remove the nut and then the stud/bolt. Note: You don't need to support the engine. The engine is still attached to the engine mount by the other bolts.

3. Remove the spacer that was on the stud. This is tight, but it will come out withou prying if you work it from the top.

4. If you haven't done so before, record the routing of the belt and then remove it. Remember how the belt came out so know how to put the new one in.

5. Install the new belt and check the routing.

6. Replace the spacer and install the stud. With the stud in place, place the nut on the stud and tighten it down.

7. Replace the access panel in the wheel well and reinstall the tire.