The tensioner is bending the bar though? And it's only moving a few millimetres... Great tip on the direction of the belt though. I'll sort that out!

It's like a shock aborder, once it starts to move it'll go slowly but Shirley. You won't like this but a rule of thumb is to have the writing on the belt facing out so you can read it. Not always necessary but some belts can be directional. The...

Na! I'm getting about 5mm of movement on the tensioner & this... Is it possible the tensioner is broken or has too much tension? Any suggestions, lads?

New water pump, too! Old one was running smoothly but I wasn't sure if it was a plastic impeller but it turns out someone already replaced it. No harm in a new one anyway.

Believe it or not It’s all going the right direction. Belt is off, nothing important snapped, and you have all your hotdogs fingers…I’d call that a win for now.

I don't recall seeing any signs of cracking. Pulleys are running smooth & quiet, fortunately.

If belt shredded I suspect it wasn't running true and that tensioner bracket may well be cracked.

Do you mean if the belt was in good condition & it snapped, as this belt was really old and I hadn't checked it. I'm sure thats why it snapped. Second belt was in really bad shape, too.

Fortunately or unfortunately the belt shredded on the A1 back from Cramlington, so removal wasn't an issue apart from pulling the remnants of shredded belt off the crank pulley. That was fun...

Maybe an inch. Enough to slip the serpentine belt off. It is quite hard to start with then suddenly goes.

I'll give it another go tomorrow but I wonder if the tensioner above is broken or overly stiff on mine. Like I said, it bent my mini crowbar trying to pivot it. How much movement do you get? Half an inch or so?

That's the one. Rather fragile. Try to go with the pivot action.

I did this but it just bent my mini crowbar...

Blade end in, no way you would get the handle of a decent sized screw driver in there.

Or rather the wrong way...

I presume you mean put the handle end of the screwdriver in. The gap through which you put your levering device through is pretty big. There seems to be "a lot" of tension on mine too. I know that's the whole idea but I'm terrified I'm forcing it...

The fulcrum tensioner? Largish screwdriver maybe - be gentle they can snap- trick is slow steady -straight (no twisting) - pressure then the elbow will release without wangling it. Snap that whole world of trouble When you get the belt off check...