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I'm doing the bottom pulley tommorow figured out how the tensioner works i used a 15mm ring spanner with another one hooked over the end to give more torque and locked it off ok with small allen key. I liberated a set of tensioners from the breakers just in case my ones are knackered cost £10 so could come in handy as spares took a while to get them off the bolts were very tight.

Anyone got any tips for getting the pulley bolt off? I've got a 2 foot draper expert bar here which usually cracks the driveshaft nuts off ok hoping it will be up to the job for this. I'll get the mrs to put it in top gear and foot on the brakes.(The next door neighbour is on standby with an airgun just in case the breaker bar doesn't work!) While i'm there i might as well check the tensioners.....

You could always use my tried and tested method.....

22mm socket on a bar, rest the bar against driveshaft or floor, turn the ignition key and shock the nut free.

If it's mega tight you may need to do it a couple of times.

Use two long extension bars, so you can use your breaker bar outside the wheelarch - much easier.

Edit sorry jasper, didn't notice your reply

wot jasper5 said, works every time.

Thanks for the advice i've just made up an angle guage with a bit of cardboard havent got the proper guage so this will have to do. Thats a good idea with the extension bars i'll have to see if i can borrow one from somewere. I've seen folk doing crank pulleys with that method they rest the extension bar on an axle stand for extra support......

When I did mine, getting it started was hard but ir did not seem impossibly tight with 18" bar.
The difficult part was that there was loctite through the full threads and it remained tight to unscrew almost all the way out! Was a lonf hard job to extract the bolt.
Rest of the cambelt job relatively more brain, less brawn!

Good luck
Peter

Had to scrap my plan to do bottom pulley raining very heavy here. I did manage to patch up my exhaust though so thats another tick on the mot list. Bottom pulley next weekend....

Hi all
Finally did the bottom pulley today. Job went well. Thanks Doggy i used your method with the 2x extension bars rested them an an axle stand. Bolt came off quite easy swapped over from breaker bar to ratchet and it came off easy and the pulley itself didn't need much effort to get it off. I had a look at the tensioner and idler pulley and the belt and all seems ok. I still have a sqeeky noise coming from the drivebelt. I'm going to get the mechanic to have a listen/ look at it soon.

Quite pleased with the job overall. I took a couple of pics so i'll post them later on. The old pulley had the brown dust on it that a few people have talked about i could see a few bits of metal filings/swarf so i think it was definately knackered only lasted 40,000miles.

When you looked at the pulley from above it was moving very slightly from left to right. Mechanic pointed it out when i had the cambelt done last year. I took my time as it was first time i've done it. Took about 3hrs on and off between cups of tea and a bit of lunch.

Here's some pics:
Here's the old pulley before i took it off, when i took this pic then looked at it on the pc it looks a lot worse: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/49152307/DSCF0998.JG
This shows how i got the bolt off, wasn't brave enough to use jasper's method that was going to be the last resort: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/49152307/DSCF1003.JPG

Close up up of same thing: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/49152307/DSCF1004.JPG

comparison of old pulley and new one: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/49152307/DSCF0999.JPG

close up of tensioner locked off: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/49152307/DSCF0996.JPG

Just took the car out for a spin and it feels a lot smoother to drive and there was a vibration before its gone now....

First link doesn't work so here it is again: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/49152307/DSCF0998.JPG