Anyway, for wahtever reason that I have yet to determine I only replaced the alternator and PS/Fan belt.. I seem to remember the AC belt being taken care of, but I was about 4-5k overdue on the other belts..... If my AC belt breaks on me, shame shame! My water pupm belt was in sorry shape, and it had been on for 35k...

So I tear into this thing, first thing you want to do is take off the alternator belt..... Loosen the tensioner.. Now one thing I didnt know about before digging into this was the tensioner adjustments..... I was a bad Q45 DIYer and did not consult the Q45 bible before I started... Fortunately, i had a streak of lazy and took a break..... So then I went down and got the belts off, getting them off was no problem, i probably just could have cut them but I decided not to, i may put them in the back of the car "just in case"... I have a spare tensioner I may keep on hand as well, just for the rainy day.....

Im going off on a massive tangent here..... Let me try and sum this up real fast...

Tools used: 12 and 14mm socket, hammer (always on-call ),

Heres the correct procedure
1. Loosen alternator tensioner
2. Remove alternator tensioner
3. remove alternator belt
4. loosen waterpump/PS tensioner
5. Remove waterpump/PS tensioner
6. Loosen AC tensioner
7. Remove AC tensioner
8. Remove AC belt

-assemble in reverse order... and replace loosen with tighten

Helpful tips (PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU START)

1. note how tight hte belts currently are... When you reinstall them try and make them just slightly tighter... Thats the best way I can describe how tight to make them, besides actually measureing the deflection...
2. Note the position of the tensioners... I put the alternator one on backwards the first time and that made an aweful screeching noise... not good! Also, the tensioners are different, so be sure to keep them seperate.....
3. All of the tensioner adjustments can be reached from below.... I tried from the top and you just cant do the water pump adjustment from the top... Theyre both easy to work with on the bottom..... Youd proabbly want to jack it up, but I was too lazy to get out the stands so I didnt bother.....

Bottom line.. Took me about an hour of actual work... maybe a little less..... Easy job.. Get you a set of belts from Joe, theyre only about $40.....

Attachment: belts.JPG (50241 bytes, downloaded 2369 times)

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Other than that, I have about 5-6 "torque" settings I base myself off of.. Snug (small nuts and bolts that dont have anything that need serious support, less than 10 ftlbs), tight (about how spark plugs are tightened to 15-25 ft lbs), really tight (probably what most bolts are, 30-40 ft lbs), never coming off (50-60ft lbs), get out the breaker bar (70-80 ft lbs), and oh crap I hope this doesnt break (90+)

I tightened these to my "tight" setting ... I know having a torque wrench is important, but this is more fun!! For the things that really matter I use a torque wrench.....

Too much depends on the angle of the effort and muscle memory isn't good when reach is not uniform.

Bottom line, get a good breaking torque wrench, have it calibrated every year, and never worry.

I agree..... I think if you buy a craftsman one you get free recalibration...

A torque wrench is on my list of things to buy... Hopefully (knock on wood) i wont have to be wrenching the Q for a little while.....

I always use a torque wrench when I tighten lug nuts.

Seems silly?

On my '92 previa with stock aluminum wheels I found that uneven torquing would result in feeling a small amount of disk warp when braking!!! Ever since I torque down wheel lug nuts religiously on all cars, usually about 95 ft-lbs.

Getting back to belts and pulleys, I've seen a lot of reports of the idler pulleys going bad on this forum. I haven't used a torque wrench on the idler pulley center nuts, maybe I'll go out and see how close I was to the right torque.

only thing i would add is that i believe you can do it all by merely loosening the 'bearing' nut [the center one] and then backing off the adjuster. entire tensioner does not have to be removed [unless you are replacing cause its bad].

Saint - what year is your Q? Anything from '94+ is available at http://www.phatg20.net - but even the 94 manual should be fine for 90-93. No real changes in the alternator placement or design...

Heath

It's a double shielded (sealed) bearing. Grease would only stay on the surface.

90 Q45 Base 246,000 miles

Thanks. Changed them out yesterday. Pretty simple job.

Quote, originally posted by goody94q45 »

It's a double shielded (sealed) bearing. Grease would only stay on the surface.

New bearings don't require lubrication and any old bearing that is rough in the slightest is shot. No amount of lubrication will repair it.

My water pump is fried. Loosing about a gallon a day. Hopefully I didn't overheat it, although been kind of sluggish recently.

Don't drive until you replace water pump, thermostat and appropriate gaskets. Preventative maintenance means repairs at the time of your dhoosing, not at inconvenient crisis times.