I need to change the alternator belt and in order to do that, the power steering belt needs to come off first.
We loosened the long tensioner bolt, and the little block piece that holds the PS pump to the tensioner bolt. One of the bolts that goes through the curved slider was missing due to the previous installer. Basically followed all the instructions, but the pump won’t move enough to loosen the belt.
The pump wiggles and moves a bit on the slider mechanism, but there’s a good inch left, and it just gets stuck. No matter what, it won’t go down. It feels like something is blocking it, but we couldn’t see anything.
Can’t take the fucking belt off, I just wasted 3 hours and accomplished NOTHING, packed up because I didn’t want to hit it with a hammer lol.
Ok after installing the alternator back on, the bolt holding the alternator to the long tensioner bolt popped out while I was tightening it. Wtf? It got dark so I came inside.
Any idea why it would pop out while trying to tighten it (probably stripped…). I wanted my alternator to STAY in its place this time so the belt didn’t slip. According to the FSM its supposed to be 16-19 ft. lbs, which I was approaching when it popped out.
I found it weird that the tensioner bolt on the power steering pump had a nut and bolt, while the alternator just has a bolt going into the alternator housing. I might have lost it lol, I’ll look around.
With some screwing around and learning a lot in the process all of the above is done, except the fuel injector replacement for cyl #3.
I took off the hose going to the P/S pump coming from the reservoir, and refilled the reservoir with fluid after reattaching it. When I started the car, the power steering pump sounded like it was running dry or sucking in air, loud whining/buzzing, I tried turning the wheel, it got louder. There were microbubbles in the fluid when I checked so definetely air.
Should I jack the front of the car up, drain the fluid from that same hose (I used PS fluid, I should’ve used ATF, so I might as well flush it all out) then refill it and start the car?
Another thing, I was tightening all the bolts around my engine bay due to OCD, and one of the exhaust manifold studs snapped off. Wtf do I do now? It is the one closest to the front of the car.
why would you touch the exhaust mani studs? if theres no leaks you shouldnt touch those at all. those are very easy to break!
anyways you could have damaged your PS pump like that. you are supposed to bleed out the entire system before you turn the car on.
the way to do it is in the FSM if you havent already downloaded one. you jack the car up, turn it lock to lock until all the air bubbles are gone from the resevoir.
hope this helps you out. if you are in doubt, always refer to the FSM.
I flushed the entire system, and bled it properly, after filling it with ATF. It runs great now.
I am so proud of myself, doing everything independently, including diagnosis and replacement.
I learned so much working on the car in the past 2 weeks.
About the exhaust manifold, I wanted to ensure I didn’t have an exhaust leak, cuz last time I seafoamed it, there was a bit of smoke coming out of where the downpipe attaches to the cat, somewhere there, I didn’t localize it. I also have obsessive compulsive disorder, and a lot of accessory bolts were loose, so I went around tightening everything. I didn’t realize the exhaust manifold studs would be so brittle, thats total fail, how are you suppsosed to torque them? Also the injector caps had really shitty screws on it, you couldn’t apply much torque without stripping them. I used a LOT of metal penetrant, and still the screw wouldn’t budge. It eventually worked, and that screw is pretty gone so I put it on without much torque.
The car pulls much stronger now that I changed the bad injector, and the idle is rock solid, pure awesomeness. I almost got evicted working on the car at my townhouse complex parking lot. lol
Totally worth it.
Thanks for the help guys I appreciate it very much, whenver I get stuck on something, I say to my friends “I’m gonna consult the forum gods” lol.
