Hey guys, went to do the belt on my Evo 4 today, everything was going smoothly until it came to putting it back on. Got the alt on, etc. etc. and was gonna do P/S last since it's up top, but there was just no way it was going on. Then tried to do crank last, no way it was going on. I had the tensioner locked with the allen key method. I noticed the tensioner can go back even further so I tried doing it without the allen key and pushing at back more but the 1/2" drive hole gave up on me before I could really give it a good try. So now I gotta do the tensioner too, so my question's are the following:

Why do you guys think I couldn't get the belt on? When I took the old one off, I had them held tight side by side and confirmed the same length, and I checked the routing many many times and it was correct.

How hard is changing the tensioner? Looks like a few bolts to take it off and then put it back in and torque it down? Anyone know the torque specs off top?

Thanks gents.

 

The belt can be a pain sometimes, I usually get it on the alt and harmonic balancer first, then move onto the easier stuff last, which would be the AC and PS. Make sure you pull on it and remove any slack so you get as much length out of it as you can. Also make sure the belt isn't sitting on the lip of the pulleys, that will also make it impossible to get the belt back on.

Changing the tensioner is easy. Two bolts although I don't remember the torque spec off hand.

 

Appreciate the info bro, so I guess holding it open with the allen key in the holes doesn't give it all the slack then does it? Definitely didn't seem like it, so just wondering if I should just totally scrap that and hold it as open as possible by hand next go around.

 

I mean I've always been able to get it on with just an allen key in the hole. Make sure you use the largest size key that will fit. A ****ty drill bit will work too, just anything made of strong steel.

 

hmm it definitely did not seem possible at the position that it was in with the tensioner being held with the holes, but I'll see when I get the new one on

 

Well the old saying if you want something done right, do it yourself is absolutely true if anyone had doubts. I removed the tensioner completely getting ready to put the new one on, and out of curiosity tried to fit the belt on everything without the tensioner being there. Still wouldn't go. This didn't make any sense to me so I decided I'll double check that the belts are the same. Pulled it off and held them stretched side by side again. And what do I find? The old belt is about 1, maybe up to 1.5 inches longer than the new one. I had my friend at the other end when I was first comparing them and he said they seem the exact same. Just took his word as from my side they looked about the same where I was standing. Big mistake and now I got a broken tensioner. Another lesson learned.

 

I was gonna suggest it was the wrong belt. Glad you got it sorted!

 

Same I assumed you'd double checked
Glad you got it dude!