1989 Pontiac Grand Am Serpentine Tensioner Replacement

[Stormrider]

Hey All,

Im working on replacing the serpentine belt tensioner on a 1989 Grand Am with the 2.3 DOHC and I’m getting rather confused. Went to pull the tensioner and the directions online didn’t line up with what I saw on the engine. Ended up pulling the alternator and AC Pump to get the bracket the tensioner is mounted in off and even once I have that whole bracket out of the car I can’t see how the tensioner will come off. I’ll throw the pics of the part below. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[melsg5]

Hey All,

Im working on replacing the serpentine belt tensioner on a 1989 Grand Am with the 2.3 DOHC and I’m getting rather confused. Went to pull the tensioner and the directions online didn’t line up with what I saw on the engine. Ended up pulling the alternator and AC Pump to get the bracket the tensioner is mounted in off and even once I have that whole bracket out of the car I can’t see how the tensioner will come off. I’ll throw the pics of the part below. Any advice would be appreciated.

View attachment 7635View attachment 7631View attachment 7632View attachment 7633View attachment 7634

Do you have the new tensioner?
Doesn't the first picture show a bolt attaching the tensioner to the bracket?

 

[Stormrider]

Do you have the new tensioner?
Doesn't the first picture show a bolt attaching the tensioner to the bracket?

That bolt in that picture is the bolt that would hold on the pulley for the serpentine belt. I put it back in thinking maybe I just needed to “unscrew” the entire body using the pulley bolt (which didn’t work) and didn’t remove it after that attempt.

The center of the tensioner body is the square shaped head that fits inside that black arm that reaches off the tensioner to the bracket. And no, there are no bolts holding that on either and I got on it with a reasonable amount of force with a pry bar and nothing. I don’t want to go ham on it without someone saying I need to just pop it off even if it brakes the part.

I attached the pics from Rock Auto of the tensioner I have. It’s the one they list for the 1989 Pontiac Grand Am with 2.3 DOHC. Of note - the parts on Rock Auto explicitly say “w/o bracket” which strongly suggests that the tensioner CAN be removed… somehow…

 

[melsg5]

You don't see anything on the new tensioner, threaded bolt hole, etc.?
The threaded stud doesn't screw into the bracket?
Have you tried to find a Hanes manual?

______________________________

 

[Stormrider]

The new tensioner has a threaded stud on the back but the only bolt is the one for the pulley which makes sense - lots of tensioner are unscrewed using the pulley bolt. Problem is the tensioner on the bracket doesn’t look like the replacement tensioner, it doesn’t unscrew from the pulley bolt, and it has the black bar across the front. I’ve been looking for any other tensioners that have a similar black bar across the front and have the square head but I haven’t found anything.

Cheapest manual I’ve found is $140 so I figured someone out there has got to know how to do this without paying five times the material cost to replace this tensioner.

 

[melsg5]

Manual is $35

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