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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Fantastic and thank you for bringing this to the forum. I agree tightening the alternator while holding the correct belt tension is a pain.

Now can you design a better manner to get the small nuts holding the cam belt covers off. A few of those are in hard to reach areas.

BTW nice looking clean engine.

 

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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Great photo. Unfortunately my kids, identical twin 19 y/o boys, are too big to be of any assistance in this regard.

 

Why not just install a helicoil in the alternator, and run a bolt into it from the front, dispensing with the nut altogether?

 

The nut is a self-locking type. The OPs suggestion is excellent, quick and easy. Putting a helicoil in, there would be no way to use a self-locking fastener and it would likely come loose. That bolt has to be tightened hard to avoid the alternator slipping on the bracket and would likely pull out a helicoil.

 

Good idea.

It's basically the same as having a box wrench held in place on the back hex.

I assume the metals are high-strength?

Nice cleaning work as well.

 

A side note, I see that you have a four post in your garage. Am I mistaken to see that the roof is not that high? If so, how high is the roof cause I'm thinking about putting one in my garage but it's only 8.5 to 9 ft at best.

Ace

 

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 for that one! I've spent 31 yrs. in hardware and never seen that offered for sale only on mfg. items. I gotta have one! Lost

 

Thanks for the info. Which garage door opener is that? I have to work on replacing mine anyway and it would be good to get something that doesn't hang from the center. Nice 328 BTW!

Ace

 

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

 

hello.
what a great idea...thanks for posting

 

I just did my belt service and in the process pulled the alternator out to have the regulator/brushes replaced. I installed the Stage 8 bolt and boy did that make the tightening process EASY! Excellent upgrade!

 

Ok, regarding the REALLY clean engine.. did you paint the covers or did you find a magical cleaning solution??

Looks great!

Lester

 

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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Very nice! Thanks for that info and sorry that I didn't notice your reply until now. It's too late for me this time but in another 5000 to 15000 miles I'll have nice looking timing belt covers!

Lester

 

Hey fellas,

Has anyone done this to the 308? I'm in the middle of the belt change and I am experiencing this misery first hand. Looking at the alternator, I think it COULD work, but it looks like there's not the shoulder on the 308 alternator as there is on the 328.

Does anyone know if it is the same size bolt?

 

A 356 (or beetle for that matter) has the same issue with the starter/engine bolt. I've seen several fancy bolt holders, but an older gentleman suggested a hose clamp around the end of the bolt and that grabbed the case and did the job! Such a simple solution...

Franny

 

Yes , the stage 8 bolt works very well. I think some Italians had 3 arms.

 

Last time I did mine I drilled through the bolt head and put a roll pin through it.