Serpentine Belt Advise
 

I need to change the serpentine belt on a 99e300td. Alldata suggests to use a tool (120-589-014700 which costs $94) to get the bolts which are holding the fan clutch. Is there any other way I could unscrew the 2 M8 hex bolts - the space available to do so is less than 1/2 inches.

I'm not sure about your 99E300td but when I replaced the belt on my 98 E320 there was no need to remove the fan clutch.

I put a socket and wrench on the bolt for the belt tensioner and used leverage to take the tension off of the belt to remove it. Refer to your owners manual for a diagram for routing the belt.

Come to think of it I did remove my fan blade, I was replacing the vibration dampner. I did not remove the fan clutch just the fan blade. I removed the shroud between the radiator and the fan blade and you should see three allen head bolts holding the fan blade to the fan clutch. Remove the three allen head bolts and the fan blade will come off.

Here is the alldata picture I mentioned http://www.pbase.com/image/5897237/original. The bolt is shown near the center of the fan clutch. How did you open it?

Here is the alldata picture I mentioned http://www.pbase.com/image/5897237/original
http://www.pbase.com/image/5897237/original
. The bolt is shown near the center of the fan clutch. How did you open it?

I removed the three bolts which hold the fan blade to the fan clutch. The three bolts are located just inside the plastic black ring (part of the fan blade) facing toward the radiator. The only tool I used was an allen wrench. I did not have to remove the fan clutch.