Mike J

Its hard to tell from the picts - it looks like a ridge between the pulley and the a/c and pump mount that narrows the opening?

WingChun

Correct, its the ridge that causes the problem but that forms part of the mounting surface for the pump assembly.
Not much you can do really.

rlme36

well had some time today to give it the ol college try. thanks again for all the input and the pics. I was able to visualize where i needed to place the belt and as Quad said, pull like a sombitch. Belt came out with out much fan fair and too my surprise skin still intact on the knuckles, always a plus. I then was able to walk the new fan belt on using the same mental picture and some tugging. again the picture was very helpful knowing that the edges/sides are where the space is and not so much in the middle.

As luck would have it, I was stopping by Dan Jacobs for an unrealted issue and mentioned my lil maintenance project and he smiled saying what a "chore the belts in that car can be". The always helpful, he asked if I had the pulley update, which i didn't know about and recommended I get them, nice that he has them avail and didn't have to order from the dealer.

Anyway, overall worth the knowledge of how to do it, but what a PITA

I still need to button it all back up and left it at snugging down the A/C compressor and getting the bracket into the proper position. That also seems like it will put up a good fight, but I think that will be ok.

chsu74

Dan Jacobs is an excellent resource for us CT folks. I just wished he was not so far away from me.

I was able to pick up updated pulley parts at Dan's too when doing an alignment last year. It was also a plus that they stock many other goodies like Tarret kinematic toe links to replace the worn out one on my driver side rear..

Quadcammer

Chao, for some reason your 97 was the easier turbo I've done the belts on. No clearance issues.

I wonder why they can be so different.

TRINITONY

Built on a Monday.