I'm trying to change the power steering belt on my 99 maxima. The alternator belt is off and only took 3 minutes to remove, but the P/S belt is killing me. The Haynes manual I have says loosen a bolt on the back of the P/S pump, then loosen the tensioner bolt that faces the ground. However, the bolt on the back of the pump won't budge and there is not much room back there. The FSM I downloaded says I will also have to loosen the bolt near the top of the tensioner bolt.

Anyways, should I just fight for another hour and try and loosen all the bolts, or is there some trick to getting this belt off? Any tips would be appreciated, thanks.

I changed the belts on my 00 max recently and didn't have to loosen the bolt on the back of the PS.....I was actually going to give up and thought I was re-tightening the tensioner bolts, but was actually loosening it...I noticed the belt getting slack, so I kept going. Have you tried without loosening it??Good luck!!! That bolt is a booger to get at.

Forgot to mention, I never even got a socket on that bolt, so I didn't loosen it at all. Must pivot on it.
Modified by SVTCOBRA at 7:49 PM 10/5/2007