Hello...

I am new to this car, I just bought it a few days ago. I have a 95 avenger ES. When i brought it home i noticed the a/c didn't work. well i just figured it needed a recharge, but while looking around the engine i noticed it was missing the a/c belt completely, not even there. So i just bought one now, and was wondering if the car has an automatic tensioner, or do i have to do this manually for the belt, if so how, that would be great, thank you.

 

be cautious and check the compressor first ... many sell thm with locked up compressors and just removethe belt

 

Totally manual tensioner.

The outer pully on the compressor will turn easily as the electromagnetic clutch will be disengaged. To check if the compressor is frozen you need to see if you can readily move the inner part of the pully assembly it should easily turn at least 2" or so each way.

Loosen the large side nut on the tensioner, then turn the smaller bolt to loosen the tensioner (think its counterclockwise on this too loosen).

Install belt and tension by tightening small bolt. Tighten until you get only a 1/4" lateral movement in belt then tighten 1 turn more. Then tighten the larger bolt to lock the adjustment.

 

thanks for the replies. there are 3 pulleys that this belt goes around, a large pulley that has another belt on it on the inside of the pulley, then 2 others(small and medium sized). which one is the inner part of the pulley assembly that should move 2"s if the compressor is not frozen up? and which one is the tensioner? thanks for the help.

 

there's a diagram on the threading of it ... as mentioned there is no "tensioner " pulley you have to loosen and move it to get tecsion

 

as ur well aware, im not to good with engines...but gotta start somewhere. I know how the belt threads on..just which pulley to loosen...I believe it's the small middle idler pulley that is not attached to anything..it's that or the pulley attached to the compressor...if you could please specify which pulley, that would be great.

 

Standing in front of car on passenger side looking down, belt on left, engine to right.

The belt travels around the top of the large engine crankshaft pulley at the rear, over the smaller idler pulley (tension adjustment pulley) and then over the lower front A/C compressor pulley. The belt then returns to the lower portion of the rear crankshaft pulley.

You need to check the front most A/C compressor inner pulley. The A/C compressor has two high pressure threaded hose connections on it.

BTW, the larger bolt on the idler pulley itself is what needs to be loosened first. The smaller adjustment bolt head is on the top of the assembly that the pulley mounts to. When you turn the smaller bolt it moves the idler pulley up and down thus tensioning the belt. Turning the small bolt clockwise moves the pulley up and tensions the belt, counterclockwise loosens it. Once adjusted you need to retighten the larger idler pully bolt to lovk in the adjustment.

Hope this helps.

 

thank you very much blkvet..that explained everything. but if you could tell me why i need to check the hoses on the compressor..that would be great. am i checking to make sure they're connected? or something else? thanks for all the help.

 

No, just mentioned them as a reference so you'd be able to identify the A/C compressor

 

lol, thanks man. in the process of putting a new belt on..the one autozone specified for my car in no way fits..so i have to go back and get a slightly bigger one...will let you'se know if this fixes the a/c problem..or if it's something else, thanks.