Tightening Alternator Belt Made Easier

Like several here this winter I decided do a major on the 328. I had a nice front bank cam seal leak that made a mess of the alternator so I took the opportunity to remove it and rebuild it. The alternator went back in last week and I decided to try out a new product to make tightening the alternator belt easier. As many of you are aware, once the proper tension is set on the alternator belt you need to tighten the 17mm bolt and nut that secures the alternator to the bracket. This is not an easy task with just two hands as you need to keep tension on the alternator/alternator belt and then some how get a wrench/socket on both the bolt facing toward the engine and the nut facing out. To make the job easier I found a bolt with a locking tab that rests on the alternator case so you only need to have a wrench on the outward nut. I'm not sure I described that as well as I could but the photos below should help. The company that makes the product is called Stage 8 (www.stage8.com). The direct replacement for the bolt is an M10 x 1.25 x 50mm. They don't have the bolt listed on their website but I called and spoke to a nice fellow named Glenn Thompson and he sent out what I needed and it cost around $4. Please note, I have no affiliation with the company, I just thought it was a cool product and wanted to share my findings with the Fchat community. By the way, check out the before and after photos of the front cam belt cover/alternator, and yes, for now I'm leaving that monster of an AC compressor out!
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Dan I have a tool for that as well. Her name is Elena and she loves working with me in the garage.
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This is certainly another way to approach it as is the suggestion to weld a tab to the alternator case to keep the bolt in place which I've seen described here as well. In the case of the helicoil, there's nothing preventing the bolt from backing out with vibration while the method I propose retains the use of the locking nut which reduces the chances of this. Also this method is quick, innexpensive, completely reversible, and doesn't require the removal of the alternator from the car to perform.

 

Rob, the bolt carries a Class 10.9 designation giving it a proof load of 830 mPA, min yeild strength of 940 mPA, and a min tensile strength of 1040 mPA. The locking tab can be purchased in stainless or aluminum. When I reviewed the application and torque spec with the fellow from Stage 8 he confirmed that the strength of the fastener components far exceeds the torque specs required.

 

Ace, at its lowest point my ceiling height is just over 10 feet. Given the low profile of the 328 I can fit another car below without difficulty and still open the garage door. The key is setting up the garage door opener in an advantageous way. As you can see in the photo below the garage door opener does not hang from the center of the ceiling, rather, it's mounted up and out of the way and this allows the garage door rails to ride higher.
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Thanks Ace, the garage door opener is a Liftmaster 3800. Here's a link to their website: http://liftmaster.com/LMCV2/pages/productmodeldetail.aspx?modelId=436

 

So glad it worked for you. I found it quite helpful.

 

Thanks for the compliment Lester. No paint on those cam belt covers, just aluminum polish and good old fashion elbow grease. I first removed the oil and grease with brake parts cleaner. Then I used a product called "Nevr-Dull" from Eagle One. This is basically aluminum polish that is soaked in a wad of fabric which can be pulled off in sections. When you first wipe it on, it leaves a wet film that you later buff off. Before buffing it off the first time, I scrubbed the metal and wet polish with the rough portion of a sponge which brought up a bunch more grime. I repeated the procedure a few more times and on the last pass I just buffed it off as described in the instructions. What was left was a nice satin aluminum finish. I did the same thing on the camshaft covers and was quite pleased with the results. I'll post some photos when I get back home.

 

Here are the before/after photos of the cam belt covers and camshaft covers. Cleaning procedure is as described in the previous post.
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