Disclaimer:
I accept no liability for personal or property damage resulting from emulating this method.

Like so many before me, I saw that the belt tensioner has a 3/8" square hole and assumed that I'd be able to use my ratchet w/ a cheater bar to take tension off the serpentine belt.... and like them, I found that the engine is about 1/4" too close to the right frame to actually get a ratchet in there. Given that I didn't have a 3/8" breaker bar, and that my alternator was completely failed, I found a non traditional solution that worked very well.





It turns out that a 1/4" 3/8 drive socket fits nicely into the aforementioned 3/8" square hole, while clearing the frame:



One then simply needs a long enough open end wrench (or spanner, if you prefer) and a jack.





Simply jack the tensioner up until you can remove the belt. I was a bit hesitant at first, but this turned out to be really drama free.

 

More than one way to skin a cat. Looks like it worked pretty well.

When I changed my belt I made a much longer grenade pin to hold the tensioner open out of some coat hanger wire. Made it much easier to get it into the hole without having to wedge my hand between the engine and frame rail.