I am going to be replacing my serpentine belt today. I have an Alta 15% reduction pulley on the supercharger. I was wondering if anyone has found a simple way to do it. Also, if anyone has a diagram of how the belt is supposed to be put back on. I am going to try to take pictures of it, but if someone has a diagram handy, that would be awesome!

If you have any advice or tips, it would be much appreciated

Thanks in advance!!

 

Jack up the right front, remove wheel and tire, pull the inner fender liner out, draw your own diagram, use a store bought or homemade tensioner lever, pretty straight forward and obvious from there on.

YD

 

There are a few diy's with pictures if you do a quick search too. Pretty simple....the Tensioner made for the MINI does help....the spring is prtetty strong. I'll also warn you, most auto parts stores will sell you the wrong length belt....and that is with the stock pulley.
Personally, I'd recommend buying a tennsioner (you will need to pull pretty hard....it amazing nobody has lost fingers on a MINI doing this task) from a vendor, and a belt!!
Most people use the 6 rib 535 belt for the 15+17% reduction pulley(NAPA/GATES are the most popular...usually made by the same company)...but an OEM will work if it is fairly new, but it may start to slip when stretched.

 

yeah... you *can* do it with a socket on the bolt as a fulcrum, and an allen wrench in one of the tensioner pin holes, and a long pry bar... done it... but way less fun and way less safe than using the factory tensioner tool.

Belt goes *outside* the crank, supercharger, alternator and ac pulleys. it goes *inside* the tensioner pulley (between crank and SC) and *inside* the idler pulley (between sc and alternator).

 

We did one of the KC Miniac's belts today, having the tool definitely makes it easier. Removing the wheel and fender liner takes longer than changing the belt. There is a small electrical valve mounted on a bracket, just aft of the oil dipstick, I recommend removing both it and the dipstick to make using the tensioner tool easier. Neither requires any tools to take off.....

 

^ - yep - true - I do that too.

 

One more point, instead of trying to insert a short allen wrench or nail into the hole in the tensioner to hold it, use a piece of coat hanger wire about a foot long. This way you don't have to work your other hand down into that small space, where your hand actually blocks your vision of the hole.

YD

 

So, someone apparently already tried to use the tensioner piece on the tension pulley and snapped it off. We would have to release the tension every time we wanted to put the belt on or move it.

I bought a 535 from NAPA and my friend and I were FINALLY able to slip it on. Fired it up, it worked fine for about 30 seconds, but when we revved it to 4k rpm, it made a loud snap, so we shut it down. The belt started splitting because it was too tight.

I bought a belt from BAP imports that squealed a bit, but seems to be working now. I'll let you know how it goes, but it seems to be working for now.

 

I actually ran a 535 with a stock pulley for 6 months...noproblems....a vendor shipped me the belt for an "s" with a pulley!! It worked fine, but man, it was a tight sob.
If you checked one of the diy's you would have seen when you pull back on the tennsioner tool, a little piece of metal comes up, a guage of sorts to measure belt tension. It also has a hole to insert a small tool to lock it in place. When you do this, the tensioner is then locked inplace, so you can route the new belt, and of course remove the old one, making it a simple one persn job.
My guess is that you pinchd the belt, causing it to shread. I guess all that counts is that you are back on the road!! Congrats.

 

Alta also includes a NAPA 60535 belt in their 15% pulley reduction kits. Unless you are running an oversized crank pulley, it is the right size. Stock belt if I remember is a Conti-Tech 1388 mm 6 rib. Metric sizing is avalable on some belts in the use, but I found the recomended 60547 too long to not slip on the sc pulley, as it is a bit longer than a stretched stock belt....the 547 is also the belt that most of the books/computer at the auto stores reccomend.

 

The 060539 is actually the one Alta suggests for a 15% - 17 % pulley click the chart tab http://www.altaperformance.com/products/show/8/Supercharger-Pulley-Belt

 

Goodyear Gatorback 6PK1365 works well with the 15%