Hi!
I want to change the serpentine belt on my '04 Monte SS 3.8L non-supercharged. L36 I believe. I made a drawing and attached a photo, just wondering if the indicated yellow pulley is the tensioner and where to go from there. Thanks!

Xray

 

Heyy! Welcome to the forum! Hmm that is where I would think the tensioner is but I'm not 110% sure. Someone else on this forum or the monte forum would prob know absolutely for sure or not

 

Got it. It was way easier than I thought it would be. Here's what I did:

1. Take out the coolant reservoir via the two nuts at the top. Set it aside without disconnecting the tubing. This gave me way more room to work.

2. Ratchet/socket on tensioner pulley nut (yellow one is the tensioner) at about the position indicated in the attachment and push and hold down (counter-clockwise) while removing the now slack belt from the alternator pulley. Let the tensioner go up to it's stopping point. note: The nut on the pulley is never loosened or removed when doing this.

3. Take out the old belt

4. Re-route the new belt exactly as indicated making sure the belt is seated in all the grooves of each grooved pulley. The alternator pulley is last.

5. Push down the tensioner again while putting the last loop over the alternator. Let go and the belt should tighten back up.

6. Put the coolant reservoir back in. Double check that no tools were left in the engine bay and that the new belt isn't touching any wiring bundles that may have been moved.

7. Start the car and check to see if everything is turning OK. Rev the engine a couple times, if the belt doesn't fly off YOU'RE GOOD!!

8. Go for a test drive. I paid attention to the power steering...I read somewhere it's important.

9. Bask in the glory of your DIY moment knowing you saved yourself a good chunk of change.

 

Well I'm glad you figured it all out =) I gotta supercharger in mine but I'm sure that the tensioner has gotta be close in the same area on mine as well.

 

ahh, thanks for the thread, helped me a bunch, my car was an 04 monte carlo. the set up was a bit dif, the tensioner is the opisite of this one but still same concept. i just took a rench, got it on the corner of the pully arm, and lifted and then pulled the belt loose, the rest was easy.