Fitting new A/C belt
 

Hi all,

I have to get to grips with fitting a new A/C belt, in addition to the aux belt and the cam belt, 'cos that's what everyone says you should do. Anyway, I was kind of dreading the A/C belt fitting on account of it's a stretch belt that requires no tensioner which makes it a PITA to fit AFAIC. Anyway, done a bit of searching for a service tool that would make the job a lot easier and the Gates site threw up this pictogram (I hate them for their ambiguity!) which seems to imply that a special tool is not needed and one can just use a 3mm cable tie instead! As I said I'm no good with pictograms so if anyone can verify this is the case I'd be most grateful. Here are the diagrams in question which outline the procedure:

https://www.gatesautocat.com/pdf/5PK628-620SF-IS.PDF

Is that what they're trying to say?

ITs a nice idea but it won’t work. The ac pump has a centre nut but this only spins the clutch not the pulley. The pas pump pulley is held on with 4 10mm bolts if i remember correct. You can’t use these to spin that pulley either as you will shear them no question.

The only way is either the correct tool, or bruit force. It took me an hour of swearing to get it on with my hands. It’s an awkward position especially if your doing it on the floor. When I do it again I’m going to buy the tool or just pay a man to do it.

How about blipping the starter motor instead, then?

I would say your asking for trouble, you don’t want to damage the new belt. When I wound it on with me hands it took a lot of messing about to get it sat in the correct place as it has to go over the lip on the pas pulley. There is a good chance you will split the new belt if you try and spin the engine on starter and it’s not seated right.

Someone might come along with a better way but I couldn’t think of one once I’d chucked all my spanners across the drive.

Haha! I know how you feel. I'm just confused by why Gates would advocate the use of a cable tie when I'm sure they'd rather sell those service tools they make for this job. I'm pretty sure I went through Gates' rigorous vehicle model version flow chart for my particular engine correctly and they of all people ought to know the correct method to install any particular product of theirs. :-/

Do they actually sell fitting tools though ? If not, they might be reluctant to recommend anything that could render them liable.

With a cable-tie attached to the belt, the fitter can't do any more damage [to the belt or the car] than they would by forcing the belt on by hand.

Starter motor ? No way, sounds very dangerous. Besides, if you've not got the auxillary belt fitted, if you turn the engine over, there won't be anything turning the upper pulley (aux belt goes on outer pulley, A/C belt on inner pulley)....or have I got that wrong ?

I thought it sounded too dangerous as well. But it's nothing like as bad as it sounds in practice. I got the big crankshaft nut off by blipping the starter motor - and it was really stuck! Blipping the starter with a 30mm ring spanner on the nut got it off first time no drama. You have to be careful, though, with cars like the V70 because you can't do this via the dashboard start button! You have to hook the starter up in isolation from the onboard electronics or your 'blip' will last for 10s with possibly disastrous consequences!
There are several vids on YT showing the method; here's one I found:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvdeYR7riZE

I want the right tool.....
 

Reading this thread with interest. Today I ordered an AC stretch belt for my 2011 D3 V70 5 cylinder. Didn't know I needed a tool.

I want to invest in the proper tool but can't find it online. Can someone post a link please?!

You might be lucky and find you only have to use a cable tie! Following the below link to the Gate's site for stretch belt info you can enter your vehicle's particulars and find out what type of tool you need to fit that belt (even if it's not a Gates belt).
Here you go and let us know how you get on:

https://ww2.gates.com/europe/brochur...ation_id=15470

Well, what a king sized PITA that was. Using a cable tie just seemed to make it even more difficult. The only solution was brute force and ignorance, during which some slight damage was done to the new belt. Much of the problem is that you have to removed the long, serpentine auxiliary belt in order to replace the small A.C belt. When you do that, you make it 100 times harder to turn the pulleys on the small belt, but turn them you must to get the new belt on. Volvo could so easily have incorporated a couple of lugs on the power steering pulley to facilitate that, but they didn't. Not good at all.