Removal of drive belts.

Hi All,

I've had the Jimny three years now, so I decided to change the drive belts, which I found easy to find here in Bulgaria.. I have both.... Only when I tried to remove or slacken the adjuster nut on the tensioner I found it already rounded off. On a real good look at the drive belts they have some some cracks and the backs are shinny and well worn. I don't think they been changed from new. I have a tite-lock socket which is the right fit but because it's fatter than a normal socket it won't sit over, the nut is deep inside the tensioner reccess. I thought I'd try some heat and using a nail punch try and tap the nut around to loosen it, Needless, to say the nut is on over-tight. My problem is will the heat from a blow lamp damage the bearings on the tensioner? Or is there another way I should proceed?
Thanks for any advice.

Tony (BGBrit)

It's probably worth getting a new bearing for the tensioner anyway, as they do fail and are easy to replace. Or you could take the radiator off and drill the head off the bolt. This may be an easier option and would avoid having to use heat.

Yes Busta,,,,Thanks,,, I thought heat might be a problem. my car has a radiator in front ,easy enough to take out as I've done that before draining and refilling ect. But the Air Con fan etc sits in front of the rad too. Not sure if I could remove that without causing lots of other problems, refrigerant and such. So reluctantly I'm thinking of attacking the problem (without heat) from above and try tapping the nut off, just so tight for access.

Cheers.

Duly...noted...cheers.

An update on the drive belts.... The belts I used were PK4-954 and PK4-850 I couldn't find info on these belt sizes so it was a bit of try and error. It's for the M13A engine with Air-con 2009 Jimny. I took out the rad and cut the rounded off nut using a dremel. The tensioner was smooth running and noise free so I didn't replace that. All running fine the last 12 months..