Caravan belt tensioner

94 Caravan, 160K

I eventually found the noise (sounds like a tambourine at idle) comes from
the belt tensioner. It seems right below the alternator, and hard to reach.
I want to replace it myself, and placed hold of the Haynes repair manual
from library. Well, I still wonder if it's an easy work to do?
Even the noise is quite annoying, I'd rather just drive the van if the belt
tensioner will keep working.

Advise please, thanks.

Simon

 

You'll find a lot of discussion on the problem and how to replace the
tensioner (how to reach the bolts, etc.). Do a google search on
"Caravan" or "Voyager" or "minivan" and "tensioner" on this newsgroup.

Bill Putney
(to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with "x")

 

THere is a nut behind the timing cover. You'll need to reach it from
underneath. Your best bet is to get oem belt and tensioner. Unless of course
you find you like doing it than buy anyhting aftermarket for it ;-)
Larry

 

A temporary fix that sometimes works for quite awhile (I'm currently
going on three months) is to move the belt slightly on the pully...you
have to relieve a little tension to do it) I was doing this almost
daily then all of a sudden it worked like a miracle and it has
stopped.

 

Watch you don't get stranded somewhere. As with mine - lucky it happened in
my driveway. My last failure, belt was not running true. Normally a sign of
the mount bolt beginning to bend. This is one of the known week points -
they tend to snap right off. Once it starts to bend, it will soon break. As
soon as you see the belt not running true, I would be replacing the
tensioner ASAP. I went and got the replacement part, when I went to release
the tension for replacement, bam - it snapped off. My previous failure was
also bent, but it did not snap when removing, but it had a good bend in the
bolt.