Has anyone replaced the belt tensioner without removing the fans? Can't get a ratchet on the bolt head because of how close the fans are. Could remove the bolt with a wrench but then how do you torque it on reassembly? Belt looks remarkably good after 131000 miles.

 

My neighbor has a set of crowsfeet wrenches that gave me enough room to get on the bolt. Never heard of them before. But his wrenches are so worn out that it rounded off the bolt head. Ended up taking off the bolt with a ratchet wrench. The new bolt fit the crowsfeet wrench perfectly so I was able to torque it properly.

 

Did mine from the bottom with a wrench, torqued it till I thought it was tight, lol.

 

I researched that you can drop the fan a little to get the clearance instead of actually removing the whole thing. ( I have to replace my Power Steering and that was what i researched i can do so it may work for the tensioner although it is lower so I'm not sure)

 

offset box wrench is what i used. i did have to add an extension for leverage. i used a pipe.

 

Those crow feet wrenches will come in handy. I used them to tighten my HFC bolts when I didn't have enough clearance with the other choices. Got them cheap at the cheap hardware store.