my dad bought an 86 560SEL a few months ago that turns out it needs a lot of work and now he's giving it to me. I am going to sell the thing ASAP but wanted to fix a few small problems with it. I have to drive it 600 miles home so I need some basic things fixed.

anyways, the belts squeeled a ton. the power steering belts are very visibly cracked on the inside and *definitely* need to be replaced.

I got the air pump and alternator belts replaced OK. in getting to the power steering, I loosened the two mounting bolts (looking at the pulley from the front of the car, at about the 11 and 7 o'clock positions) and the main adjuster bolt (4 o'clock position). the pump still would not budge much and I couldn't get it loose enough to get the old belts off. I thought about cutting them off, but was worried about not being able to get the new ones on.

any ideas? would it be easier to get the fan/clutch pulley off and just do that? the other two belts were pretty easy to change, but these were just really tough and I didn't think it should be as hard as I was trying. I had a huge pry bar in there to pull the P/S pump down to release more tension on the belts, but to no avail. am I missing something?

the adjuster bolt on the right side of the pump didn't seem to have teeth. the alternator and air pump had those teeth like you talk about, but the P/S didn't seem to have that although you can't really see the bolt all that well. I had to take out the hydraulic reservoir bottle just to get at the bolt on the right side.

it seemed like all 3 bolts were all on a slide where you could push the pump in order to tension the belt correctly... I will have to look at it again when it's light out, and its warmer. working in 20 degree weather sucks!!!

There are three mounting bolts on this pump. One is under the adjusting screw, at about the 4:00 position if I remember correctly. Above that third bolt is a hex head adjuster which is threaded through a plastic slide. You simply turn the hex head bolt to adjust the tension on the belt after the three mounting bolts are loose. Very simple, but don't strip the plastic thread in the adjuster!

ah ha! now I found it. hiding under some wires and hoses. thanks a ton nhdoc!!! if you're in NH you're probably getting the same snow i'm getting in MA... stinks to have to try and work on a car in this weather!