Ah, the sheer joy of belt replacement!
Had to do this Friday on Starry Night, R25 with a Cummins 130 hp. We had a high pitched whine that we could not trace, after I checked the air filter and found it fine, sent pics of the turbo to Cummins and had them say they didn't think that was the problem. They really thought it was the belt. Well, after replacing it, neither I nor my mechanic saw anything wrong with it, so there goes a hundred bucks. But I learned the following valuable lesson on belt replacement:
1. Remove the vertical portion of the inside step to gain access (using your trusty square screwdriver bit)
2. There are three screws on the vertical surface of the black plastic cover over the belt which must be removed (and not dropped into the bildge.) There is about an arm's width of room to work....
3. Two screws are fairly easy to access, they are phillips, don't remember the size. One of the screws is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to access - it is on the upper right corner, at the end of the horizontal post holding the alternator. I had to use a bit from my power screwdriver and pliers to turn the screw bit at a 90 degree angle, because there is only about 2 inches of clearance between the belt cover and the fiberglass bulkhead wall leading into the cabin, no way to use a screwdriver there!
4. Curse a few times, as you now think you have the cover removed. :twisted:
5. Using a mirror on a stick, you will now discover that there is a NUT on the BOTTOM OF THE ENGINE, about 2 inches in from the end, that you now have to remove with a wrench, working blindly. I am really not kidding. I did not replace that nut when the job was done.
6. My Cummins mechanic was on site replacing an intake manifold temperature sensor that has failed for the second time, and he was guiding me through the above process. He did the actual belt removal because I did not have the physical strength to lift up on the tensioner pully. He suggested I purchase a very long and strong 15 mm closed end wrench to hook onto the bolt on the tensioner to give me enough leverage to raise it the inch or so needed to pop the belt off and on.
7. Continue cursing at the idiots who put a nut on the bottom of the engine case where you would never think there would be one..... :evil:
I advise you all to check your engines for this issue - had this happened underway and I needed to replace the belt, I would have trashed that stupid plastic cover to get to the belt.
Have fun!
