Doing My Timing Belt Today, Run Into A Few Issues!

[J Meiser J]

Good afternoon

My father in law and I are in the middle of replacing the timing belt and auxiliary belts and we have run into a few problems.

1. The idle pulley for the air con belt won't budge. We have loosened the lock nut (even removed it completely at one point) and it will not move to release the tension in the belt.

2. None of the alternator bolts (the pivot or adjusting lock) will budge either. I have already broken a socket wrench trying to undo the pivot bolt and I don't want to risk breaking anything on the car or any more of my tools.

We have covered the bolts in WD40 but this has done nothing. Dies anyone have any suggestions or can point out where we may have gone wrong?

Thanks :-)

[J Meiser J]

Update: With the help of my brother in law, we managed to get the pivot bolt on the alternator loose, so that is now sorted. However, the idler pulley still refuses to budge and the centre bolt is now completely mangled and will need cutting off :-(. Add to that list the fact that we cannot get the crankshaft pulley bolt to loosen and you get the picture that today had turned into a bit of a wasted day. We'll be giving the crankshaft pulley bolt another go tomorrow after looking up some of the tips and tricks on here, so wish us luck!

[J Meiser J]

We had to give up in the end, as we couldn't get the timing belt tensioner off. Does anyone have any tips on how to remove it, as following the guide in the repair manual didn't seem to work for us?