altinator belt help

[JDM-MAT]

How easy is this to change I have a belt screach and guess its this, what's the best way to change this and what's the best belt to change it with.

Thanks, Mathew.

[cvega666]

have you tried tightening it up ? (the alternator has an adjust pivot bolt)

changing it is not too bad as far as I remember when it was done.

[Shmed]

Not too bad bud, the most annoying thing is that you have to take the AC belt off too. I bought my belt from Toyota (and did away with the AC)

[JDM-MAT]

Adjust pivot where is this then =P

[Shmed]

The alternator is held in 2 places, and a third long bolt is used to apply tension to the belt. The main bolt goes through the bottom of the alternator from the drivers side towards the passenger side. There is a second bolt higher up the alternator on the right (looking at the alternator from the drivers side). Both of these should be slackened slightly. Finally, you'll see a long 'bolt' perpendicular to the rear firewall going towards the front of the car. Tightening that bolt applies tension to the belt, the retighten the other two bolts. That's it. Sorry no pics, my pc is out of action at the minute, shame as I have a really descriptive pic of what I just described.

Oh, just as an aside, if the belt has just started squealing, chances are it's stretched. Tightening it more will 'fix' the problem, but only for a short while. You should change the belt.

[cvega666]

The alternator can be moved backwards and forwards using the adjusting bolt. Obviusly take care not to overtighten... Screeching belt might be a sign of alternator starting to seize up though. This is what happened on my NA and after we changed the alternator we found the casing was cracked.

The belt should be tight only so you can actually twist it with your fingers about 1/4 of a turn as far as I remember.

[JDM-MAT]

awesome thanks guys will get on with this tomorrow

[swaggansway]

sound advice there just don't over tighten or u will kill the bearings in ur alt then u will be putting a post in the wanted section lol

[andyg1978]

sound advice there just don't over tighten or u will kill the bearings in ur alt then u will be putting a post in the wanted section lol

Very sound advice, bearing in my alternator are on their way out with a tight belt being the cause

[JDM-MAT]

i might just get a new belt

[swaggansway]

I wood m8, better than a new alt! u need to revise how to remove ur air con belt, I wood replace that too caws u know what will happen if u don't lol

[JDM-MAT]

Yeah think I'm going to have to lol, I dont even know if my a/c works no cold air comes out when I turn it on? Could be out of gas or the compressor is broken, how would I find out if it is broken?

[swaggansway]

I don't know, I have a pile of ac bits as I always just take em off. not a fan if u know what I mean lol
have a butcheres at bgb or pop a post up!

[toxo]

It will have leaked out, car aircon systems are not well sealed and your car's pretty old! You will struggle getting it regassed if you did want it to work as it uses the older gas which you can't get anymore (and a lot of places don't stock the substitute gas).

Remember you have to loosen the pivot bolt on the underside of the alternator and the adjusting lock bolt on the top before you tighten the adjustor bolt. It's all much easier to get to if you take the inspection panel off, and you'll need to remove an undertray from the car to get to the pivot bolt.

Belts are about £8 from Toyota. You can't use N/A alternator belts on a turbo (certainly not on rev3+ anyway) as they are the wrong length. Or if you know the sizes (they are on here somewhere) you can just order a generic belt from a motor factors.

[JDM-MAT]

Thanks for the heads up matey

[4ndee]

dont need a/c with a t bar

[toxo]

dont need a/c with a t bar

Yeah you do, it's ace for defogging the windows in winter, it removes all the moisture from the air

[JDM-MAT]

I like everything to work, so what do I have to do? Buy a later rev compressor

[toxo]

I like everything to work, so what do I have to do? Buy a later rev compressor

Easiest way is to find an aircon place (there are mobile aircon people who will come out to you) that will regas with R12 replacement gas. R12 is illegal now but there is a substitute gas you can use in its place without having to swap mechanical parts. Unfortunately you can't buy R12 replacement gas cans from Halfords, so you can't regas it yourself, and Kwik Fit won't do it either, so that's both your cheap and cheerful ways of regassing ruled out.

Later cars use R134, you can in theory convert an older car to use this but you need a lot of bits off a later car to do it, as well as brand new seals for every pipe join in the A/C system (and there are a lot!). R134 is thinner than R12 so it will escape out of the seals on an R12 system.

[JDM-MAT]

Right I see I will have to look into this