VAUXHALL COMBO fan belt tensioner

[MeldrewsMate]

I'm changing the alternator on my 2010 Combo van, but can't fathom how to remove the tension from the tensioner so that I can refit the drive belt easily. It has quite a strong spring!

Any suggestions?

MM

 

[Burnerman]

Can you get a long combination spanner on the bolt and heave it against its spring with that? Sometimes its an idea to have a helper to hold it that way until you sort the belt out.
John

 

[Mottie]

Aren't they the ones where you use a torx socket and power bar, hold the tension off and then put a pin/drill bit in a hole to hold the tension off?

 

[Burnerman]

Dunno.....the one I did was an older vehicle, with the Izuzu 1.7 lump. I was able to jam the spanner on the inner wing, I think. Same principle though.
John

 

[MeldrewsMate]

Aren't they the ones where you use a torx socket and power bar, hold the tension off and then put a pin/drill bit in a hole to hold the tension off?

Yes. it has a 3 or 4mm hole that will serve that purpose, but the torx bolt in the centre of the tensioner just mounts it to the block, so I'm struggling to understand the method by which I 'compress' the tensioner spring.

 

[MeldrewsMate]

Is it simply a matter of levering against the plastic idler roller? Surely there's a high risk of damaging the roller surface; the surface that rolls with the drive belt?

 

[Burnerman]

It's the central bolt on the revolving tensioner wheel that you heave on, I'm pretty sure?
John

 

[Mottie]

Yeah, normally if you heave the wrong way, it will just undo.

 

[Mottie]

If it’s this type, fitting the torx socket onto the ratchet and getting it in the 9 o’clock position should allow you to pull up to compress the spring. Then pop a pin in the hole.

 

[Burnerman]

I don't recognise this tensioner so I'll leave this one! I seem to recall the spring was enclosed in an alloy block.
John

 

[MeldrewsMate]

The picture Motman posted is not what I have. It is more how John (above) describes, a circular alloy block enclosing (I assume) a helical spring. There is no obvious way to compress the spring except by use of a lever, so I suppose that's the way it's going to be.
Thanks for all the suggestions.
I'm signing off.

MM