I rounded (not completely) my tension pulley bolt. I can’t get at it from any good angle to really get it loose. Is there anything I can do to get it loose? Following your guys instructionsa this read as one of the easier things to do. Any help would be awesome. Thanks,
Jeff
Are you trying to access it through the hole in the timing belt cover? Or do you have the cover off?
I think if you took the cover off (I know it’s a pain), you’d be able to get at it with vice grips or something.
how do you get the cover off? I thought you had to cut that cover in order to get it off?
You need to remove the crank pulley and a bunch of 10mm bolts to get that cover off.
Good luck.
Thanks for your replys guys. Are there any special tools I can use to get that tensioner belt loose. I used a 3/8 wrench with a 14mm socket and I couldn’t get good leverage. Any other ideas?
I loosened mine with a 14mm wrench. Hope it comes out and replace that bolt once it does.
my problem is if I get it loose, with out taking the crank pulley and the cover off, you can’t take that bolt all the way out cause the tensioner pulley will fall…so you just used a 14mm wrench? open ended or boxed?
Boxed end wrench with a 5 degree bend, but I had the cover off. An old trick is to tap a smaller socket on the bolt (SAE that’s smaller than 14mm) and then they move.
But I know there isn’t much room in there. I fell your pain. 
thanks man, I’ll try and see if I can do that, but who knows.
hm…if you stripped your bolt, that could be a problem. stripped bolts are a weakness of mine.
I would’ve suggested to have a normal 14mm socket, put the ratchet on it and have the ratchet sticking straight up in the air; ie towards the sky, then put a pipe over the ratchet for leverage, get a friend to hold the head of the ratchet so the 14mm doesn’t wiggle loose, and just pull as hard as you can from the front of the car to get the bolt loose…
but if you’ve stripped your bolt, then go to a mechanic you know, and ask him to loosen it for you or something.
You’ve got me on this one.
Make sure you use a 6 pt 3/8" drive 14mm short socket. If you need some leverage, use a small diameter pipe to place over the handle of the ratchet. If the bolt is too rounded out (which I’ve run into before) I recommend pulling the lower timing belt cover off (which requires removal of the crank pulley bolt) and cut the end of the bolt off with either a pnumatic cutter or dremel tool. Once the head is off the bolt, it will simply spin out. Obviously you will need a replacement tensioner bolt, but at this point that’s a good idea anyway. Let me know if you need any help.
A little OT here,
When i installed my tensioner, i made sure to torque the bolt down to spec, but when i tried to take it off a few days later (to install new tensioner) the bolt was on there SOOO tight (definately more than i torqued).
Has anyone experience this prob before? It seems as if the bolt tightened itself…or something…weird indeed.
Hey I want to thank everybody for their imput again. I’ll try again tomorrow, it was so damn hot here in Jersey today, I didn’t get too much done.
Dan, how hard is it to get the crank pully bolt off without air tools? I will have an extra set of hands here, but also I don’t want to be the second on this site to take one in the nuts. I really want to get this fixed my intake cam is off one tooth and the car runs horrible. Always bogs down on me. Since I don’t have an air gun is a chain the best way to get it off?
Oh by the way I was a 6pt 3/8 short socket I was using. I guess it just popped off a few too many times.
Thanks again.
Jeff
somebody above mentioned vise grips
works every time for me
yeah I’ve removed a few bolts with vice grips before, but do you really think I can get that bolt at that angle? I haven’t tried it yet, but that space is so damn tight and with the mont in the way it makes it worse.
go get some needle nose vise grips
clamp them things down TIGHT
then give it a try
Without air tools the crank pulley bolt will be hard to break loose if you don’t have the crank pulley “holder” tool. If your car is still together, take it to a tire shop. I’m sure they’ll break it loose for you. Then have them just tighten it a bit and drive home. You should be able to spin it right back off. And vice grips will not work for the tensioner bolt. If you have rounded it off using a socket, it’s definitely too tight for a pair of vice grips. Best of luck.
Just to add to Dan’s post, when you havee the meechanic tighten it just enough for you to drive home, (which will still be loose), DO NOT boot the car…your crank pulley will be at risk of falling off…first hand experieence over heere.
thanks guys…I’m going to a shop tomoorw who’s gonna break it for me. Dan so you said I should use a dremel and cut off the head of the bolt right? Than how do I get the bolt out. I won’t have anything to grip. And once I am finally through with everything can I tighten the pulley belt myself or do I need to go back to a shop again?
Thanks again guys,
Jeff
Once the head is cut off, remove the tensioner, then grip the cut bolt with visegrips and turn. Note order of parts and how the spring is installed.
Follow the shop manual for tightning the timing belt, think it’s something like turn the motor 4 teeth then tighten bolt to 40 lbs/ft.