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Old 10-14-2008, 11:21 PM
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Strife Strife is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: KY USA
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It isn't really "difficult" as much as it's a tedious PITA. If one belt is bad, and they are all the same age, you should replace them all, which would involve:

1. Loosening the P/S pump
2. Removing the fan shroud
3. Removing the upper radiator hose (maybe, I don't remember)
4. Removing the fan blade/fan clutch (as a unit is how I did it)
5. Loosening the AIR pump
6. Loosening the A/C belt (Generally be removing the idler pulley)
7. Loosening the alternator

There are a lot of nasty things that could go wrong involving frozen bolts, etc.
Note:
1. Take care in loosening the alternator and p/s pump. There is a toothed bolt for the alternator and you do NOT turn this, you remove the nut from the back, otherwise you will break it. The P/S pump is adjusted with a long bolt, and this adjustment is tricky and not intuitive
2. If you have to remove the upper hose end(don't remember), do NOT overtighten it when replacing
3. Do NOT overtighten the new belts, the lives of the water pump, alternator, and P/S pump bearings will be dramatically shortened otherwise. I have a Krikit belt tensioning tool and I was amazed at how loose the MB belt specs are -particularly, the power steering/water pump belts and yet, they work with no squealing. If you don't do this everyday, this is not easy to do by "feel".

If you feel that you can replace just the alternator belt, you only have to remove the A/C belt and the AIR pump belt to get to it.
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