I need to replace my altenator, but the Haynes manual, as usual is useless. It has one tiny pic of the belt tensioner (if your car has this) I don't see anything that resembles the pic. Does an 87 Cavalier have one??? I might as well replace the belt too, no idea how long it's been in there. Is that a hard job? I'm pretty mechanicly inclined, but shy about entering new waters. Thanx for any help. Again the car is an 87 Cavalier, 2.8L MPFI

 

If I remember correctly, that engine was equipped with multiple V-belts dependent on what accessories you have. There may not be a tensioner at all if that's the case. When looking at your engine you may see several seperate belts, very narrow width. They are each adjusted by varying components and their brackets. A serpentine belt is wide with several grooves and is almost always kept tight by a spring loaded tensioner.

 

ElChevelle is right, if you have one wide belt or maybe two, (some have two) you have a serpintene belt. If not you will probably have 3, narrow v shapped belts. If you have a serpintene belt you should see a pulley that dosen't run anyting, that is the tensioner. If it has a spot for a breaker bar use that if not find a socket that will fit the bolt in the ceter of the pulley. If it dosen't move when you go one direction you need to go the other.
Good Luck.

 

I also forgot to mention that with serpentine belt-equipped Chevys, they put a sticker on the radiator support showing the correct path through the pulleys so that you can put it on right. I like Haynes much better than Chilton's though Chilton's has improved recently but anyhow, they should also have the diagram in their book, in the first section I believe.

 

Yes it does have the sepentine belt and a diagram of the path on a little thing that looks like a belt "guard". So looking down at the engine there is a pully in front under the "guard" and the alt. is in the back. The front pully is probly the tensioner?

 

If that pulley is not hooked up to the power steering, air conditioning, water pump, or alt it is the tensioner.

 

Your tensioner should look like one of these: