surpentine belt tensioner replace

[gutzguy]

Happy New Year, there is a loud squealing noise coming from the belt tension area. i want to replace it. 92 buick lesabre. is it a hard job to do can the average person do it? thaks for your help.

[HotZ28]

Nothing to it, if you have a few tools! IIRC, the 92 even has the belt routing on the radiator shroud. In addition, when you have the belt off, be sure to check the alternator, PS pump, water pump and ac pulley for noise, binding & free travel.

[Smith1000]

If it is similar to the '97, you just replace the pulley rather than the entire tensioner piece. The bolt in the center of the pulley is reverse threaded, so loosen to the right. The belt must come off first though. Don't overtighten when bolting on the new pulley. It is aluminum and is fairly soft, so it can easily strip out.

[spinne1]

It is doable but a little tricky. Why? I do not see any way to remove just the tensioner pulley by itself. (I could be wrong--it could be that if you keep pushing the center bolt upward it will loosen.) If you can't remove just the pulley itself, then to replace you have to remove the entire piece that it is connected to. This is a large aluminum piece with four large bolts going through it into the block and/or head of the engine. The tricky part is that the heating tubes (or at least one of them) will be attached to metal flanges being held in place by nuts that are over the studs that are part of one or two of the bolts being used to attach the large bracket to the engine. When you remove the nuts, the heating tube flanges will not want to easily move out of the way, so sometimes you have to persuade them a little (bend the tubes and bend back, or the same with the flanges.) Also adding to the trickiness is that the main engine wiring harness is attached to the flange as well with a plastic fastener. Getting it off requires a small set of pliers or a screwdriver pushed against one side of the fastener and then some wiggling to get the other side out (or hold the piece with one side freed while then moving the screwdriver to the other side and push it.)

In good weather it is a fairly easy job. In bad weather you will not like it especially if there is muck all over the parts in question.