2006 Caravan Belt Tensioner

Can someone advise the best tool to fit on the 2006 caravan belt
tensioner to relieve the belt tension? There is a solid square tab
protruding off the tensioner. A crescent wrench will fit on it but
there is no room to hold this wrench and put leverage on it. Is there
a custom tool for this?

 

I don't have a Caravan, but on most vehicles, there will be a square
hole in such a tab on the tensioner to fit perfectly with either a 3/8"
or 1/2" square drive (as in a ratchet or breaker bar).

 

Or even better, as in a torque wrench (since there's a torque spec for it).

 

On all the ones I've seen, that hole is used only to hold tension off to
create slack for removing or installing the belt. Tension was either
done with a built-in tensioner spring (that was either active all the
time or applied initial tension until the lock down bolt was tightened)
or tension was manually adjusted with a jack screw built into the
tensioner (no spring). You may be right that some vehicles use the
square hole for the actual tensioning (with a torque wrench), but I have
never seen that (on any of the cars I've owned).

 

If we're thinking of the same tab, it was used to tension the belt on
2.2s.