Working on replacing the belt of my 2002 R53. When using the belt tool, I get no travel from the tool aside from the motor slightly rocking. I have used a cheater pipe for more leverage, but still no movement.

Looking at pictures of the spring online, mine looks very extended. There are no holes showing and the tensioner stop is about a 1/3 of an inch from the top of the bracket.

Any advice on why the tensioner will not compress the spring?

 

Have been toiling away at it. Trying to keep from having to remove the entire tensioning arm. I'm a currently thinking it may be a problem with the strut on the arm.

Current thought is to remove this strut to see if that helps. Would it be possible to put the strut back on without lifting the whole engine?

 

Sounds like you are not using it right....while firm pressure is needed...a cheater should not be needed...and not sure how it be working (the tensioner) if it was siezed....
Are you hooking it around the right bolt to pivot it, and compress the spring? Then pin it....

 

Yeah. I've watched several videos. Everything seems like this should be nice and easy. I have the tool's two pins set into the the arm and it resting on the forward most bolt. When I pull, the whole engine moves, but the spring does not compress.

 

It does sounds like something is seized, which is weird. Usually they just become weak and wobbly. Mine wouldn't go back all the way to its position after removing the allen key.

I have to go on ZippyNH for the cheater bar, the tensionner is a bit of a bear with the oem tool, but you're not supposed to need more than that to compress it.

You can get away with not lifting the whole engine if you replace it. When I changed my tensionner, I just put a jack under the engine, removed the upper bolt on my TSW upper mount and removed the bracket on the engine and lifted it enough to wiggle it out. I have the BSH lower engine mount and the Powerflex gearbox inserts, so if I can jack the engine to gain access, you can with factory mounts (if that's your case).

 

Turns out the issues were caused by a seized strut. With some brute force and wd-40.

Now having a weird issue with belt sizes. The belt that O'Reilly have me is exceptionally too small. Went to the store with the old belt, found one close and slightly smaller. With the new belt installed, both holes have retreated into the spring. Looks like it is too long. I saw an Alta Supercharger pully; not sure if it is stock or reduced.

Does anyone know the necessary lengths of belt for a stock vs 15% pulley?

 

look at the crank damper...since you have a -15% SC pulley....you may also have a crank damper swap too...
if it is an OEM on with a layer of rubber...then you need a 535 length...
Not sure if it is NOT an OEM belt...some are stock size, some are +2%....