How long should it take to install pulley and damper...

...for the serpentine belt on a "94 Saab 9000 CSE? Three hours seems a
bit excessive to me. It's not like it's that hard to get at. I thought
of doing it myself, but it looks a bit tricky.

Any advice appreciated.

> Oh, and that special tool for the belt tensioner is just a long 1/2"
> breaker bar and socket. I made a homemade fixture to hold it in the
> retracted position from a piece of steel strap with a couple of bolts.
> I forgot where I saw the dimensions for that tool. Here is some info on
> the tensioner:
>

Mine took two days...because the socket for the breaker bar on the
pulley was already broken, and it took me a day to figure out that a
big pipe wrench would work. All things considered, three hours is way
too much time for a real mechanic to do this job. Assuming no
complications, it's 30 minutes, max.

-John O

On May 6, 7:32 am, Etaoin Shrdlu <shr...@invalid.com> wrote:
> ...for the serpentine belt on a "94 Saab 9000 CSE? Three hours seems a
> bit excessive to me. It's not like it's that hard to get at. I thought
> of doing it myself, but it looks a bit tricky.
>
> Any advice appreciated.

You don't need three hours. You do need to remove the passenger side
wheel arch, loosen the belt to remove the crank pulley. An impact
wrench helps but not absolutely necessary.

The most elegant way of removing and installing the belt is to use a
1/2" drive 18" long breaker bar with a 19 mm short socket. Stand in
front of the car facing the rear with the hood open. Slip the socket
onto the nut on the tensioner and start pushing the breaker bar toward
the rear. The tensioner will gradually give way. When it does the
belt will be loosened. Keep the force on the breaker bar with your
right hand. Crouch down to remove the belt with your left hand.
Remember the belt routing. Installation is the same way. You do not
need any special tools to remove and install the serpentine belt.

The crank pulley needs a 27 mm socket. If you do not have a helper,
do the following. Shift the gear into fifth. Slip the 27 mm socket
and the breaker bar on and have the tip of the bar rest on the
ground. Then put the tire and wheel lug on hand tight. Rotate the
tire to loosen the crank pulley nut.

It is critical you tighten the crank pulley nut to 129 ft-lbs. A
loose crank pulley could spell disaster. The engine timing depends on
it. A loose pulley could mean the timing chain slipping relative to
the cam shafts.

On May 6, 7:32 am, Etaoin Shrdlu <shr...@invalid.com> wrote:
> ...for the serpentine belt on a "94 Saab 9000 CSE? Three hours seems a
> bit excessive to me. It's not like it's that hard to get at. I thought
> of doing it myself, but it looks a bit tricky.
>
> Any advice appreciated.

One should be able to do it in less than an hour. Experience has
taught me to replace both pulleys at the same time. Just remember
that the tensioner pulley's nut has a left handed thread. Two people
can do it with a breaker bar alone but a suspension spring compressor
works well to compress the tensioner. There is no need to remove the
wheel well liner. One can feed the belt around the proper pulleys
with the aid of a trouble light, a yard stick and maybe the hook of a
clothes hanger.