[Black95G20]

I am doing this write up for those of us who have high mileage cars (mine has 213k) and need to replace the serpentine belts. Sorry, I won't have any pictures because I did not think of doing this write up until afterwards, but nonetheless, it should be helpful.

When replacing the belts (you have two, a/c and power steering), you should do them both at the same time. Go to your local parts store, and they should have them in stock. If they carry Gates belts then the part numbers are as follows:
A/C : K060408
Power Steering: K040335

You should double check these numbers when they give you the belts because when I got mine the guy behind the desk was dyslexic or something and he gave me K040355 instead of K040335.

Now that you have the belts, you can get to work. First jack up the passenger side of your car. Take off the front wheel. You will see a black plastic piece that is held on by two plastic screws (phillips head) and two bolts (10mm) (one bolt you can see, the other is on the bottom of the front bumper. After taking these out, you can remove the black plastic piece.

Before taking off the power steering belt (the skinnier one) you have to take off the A/C belt (this is why they recommend doing both at the same time). First, check the tension of the belt just to get a feel for how it should be (this will help you when putting the new ones on).

Towards the front of the engine, above the alternator is an adjusting bolt (12mm). First, loosen the locknut (12mm) on the side, and then you can loosen the adjusting bolt. You need to loosen it quite a bit before you can take the belt off. After you loosen it, the alternator should slide down to give you some freeplay to take the belt off (mine needed a little help to slide). Now that you have freeplay, you can slide the belt off the pulleys.

Near the back of the engine underneath your power steering fluid is the adjusting bolt for the power steering pulley. First loosen the locknut (12mm), then loosen the adjusting bolt (12mm) until you have enough freeplay to take off the belt, and then take it off.

Now that you have both belts off, you are ready to put the new ones on. The power steering on goes on first. It goes around three pulleys (I recommend putting it around the big pulley first and then working it onto the others). Make sure that it is properly seated in all of the grooves. Now you can adjust the tension.
Tighten up the adjusting bolt until there is little tension in the belt (try to get it about the same as the old one was).

Next you can put on the A/C belt. This time I put it on the pulley closest to the front first, then worked it onto the other pulleys. Now tighten the adjusting bolt until the tension is about the same as it was before.

Here, I started my car to look and see how the belts were. There were a little sloppy so I shut off the car and tightened up the adjusting bolts a bit. I started the car again and they looked good, so I turned off the car.

Once you have the tension right, tighten both of the locknuts on the adjusting rods. Now just put the black plastic piece on the fenderwell, put the wheel back on and drop your car back down.

Hopefully this will be helpful, because it took a while to write out

~Jeff

 

[Yahnozha]

Awesome!! Ill be replacing mine real soon, Ill add the photos to this writeup.

 

[cn_g20]

Awesome!! Ill be replacing mine real soon, Ill add the photos to this writeup.

Good, look forward your Pics!!

 

[P10 WRC]

maybe i have small hands, but i've never taken the wheel off, just fit my hands down there.

 

[1Love]

I think I need to do this as well (145k) ....how much did the belts cost you?

 

[jburnham]

No way!

This job is a piece of cake except for one part:

"Near the back of the engine underneath your power steering fluid is the adjusting bolt for the power steering pulley. First loosen the locknut (12mm), then loosen the adjusting bolt (12mm) until you have enough freeplay to take off the belt, and then take it off."

I couldn't get in there from the top or the bottom. Not with sockets, not with crescents, not with cursing and hopping around pissed off. I easily got the lock nut loosened, but there wasn't any way to crank the tensioner. The A/C line and a bunch of other stuff is in the way.

I've done some of the larger easy jobs like putting in Ground Controls and Brake jobs. I think you need to either be mechanically inclined or have tiny hands to get in there and work.

I'll happily pay the hourly rate to get this job done - I just wish I knew it was such a P.I.T.A. before I got to the power steering belt.

 

[victor]

On my 92 G20 a pipe from the airconditioning system prevented the alternator from dropping down far enough to really loosen the belt. I had to pry it off with my fingers while trying to turn the air conditioner pulley which could turn a bit due to the clutch mechanism on it. Same when putting it back on. The designers of this car certainly didn't make it easy to work on. Now it squeals sometimes for the first two or three seconds, maybe because there is some antifreeze residue still on it from a slow leak at a hose connection. I may try spraying it with brake cleaner to see if that helps. How much play should the belt have anyway with lets say about ten pounds preassure applied to the center of the longest run.

 

[Black95G20]

I think the belts were about $10 or $12 a piece. As for not being able to access the power steering belt adjusting bolt, I just used an offset 12mm wrench. I had to come from the middle of the engine and under it a little to be able to turn it, but it wasn't that hard to do for me. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

 

[nelam]

Towards the front of the engine, above the alternator is an adjusting bolt (12mm). First, loosen the locknut (12mm) on the side, and then you can loosen the adjusting bolt. You need to loosen it quite a bit before you can take the belt off. After you loosen it, the alternator should slide down to give you some freeplay to take the belt off (mine needed a little help to slide). Now that you have freeplay, you can slide the belt off the pulleys.

Thanks for the write up. But is there another bolt underneath the alternator that we also have to loosen too? Just checking, I have never change belts on a P10 before, but I have done so many other Nissans that they all have another bolt that you should lose before the alternator can slide.

Nelson

 

[P10 WRC]

Re: Re: How To: Write up on belt replacement for a P10

Thanks for the write up. But is there another bolt underneath the alternator that we also have to loosen too? Just checking, I have never change belts on a P10 before, but I have done so many other Nissans that they all have another bolt that you should lose before the alternator can slide.

Nelson

yeah that is the locknut he is referring to. you loosen that first and then you can turn the adjustment bolt to move the alternator

 

[lcd93g20]

Thanks for the write up on the belts. I am going to Schucks as my alternator is toast. Decided to replace the belts at the same time since I noticed they look so bad (125k) and appeared to be originals.

 

[Black95G20]

wow, I almost forgot about this one. Thanks for the reply. I just wish I had thought of writing it beforehand, I could have taken pics, but oh well.

 

[oneloudG20]

thats funny i planned on doing mine tomorrow even before this thread was added

 

[oneloudG20]

help

well i was going to do mine, my friends dad works at the local Nissan dealership and was gonna get me the belt but he says that they are backordered from infiniti now and he said that if he orders the sentra se-r one they will send the wrong belt. Now are there any aftermarket belts out there ? Where at ? Price? thanks

 

[Black95G20]

Go to your local parts store, and they should have them in stock. If they carry Gates belts then the part numbers are as follows:
A/C : K060408
Power Steering: K040335

I think total they were like $20 or less. Gates makes good belts.

 

[lcd93g20]

I picked up the main belt for $20 and the power steering belt for $11 at Schucks.

 

[thefultonhow]

My alternator doesn't want to slide at all. I loosened both bolts. I tightened the adjusting bolt to slide it up, and then it slides back down to where it was stuck before and sits there. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[mattb]

Good write up. :thumbsup:

 

[Kazmi]

anybody got any pics to add to this? great writeup none the less.....

 

[Yahnozha]

My alternator doesn't want to slide at all. I loosened both bolts. I tightened the adjusting bolt to slide it up, and then it slides back down to where it was stuck before and sits there. Anyone have any ideas?

There are three bolts for the alternator...the pivot bolt, the adjustment bolt and the lock down bolt.