That's why I mentioned the last pulley should be one without ribs. Most people don't think of that, but in this case, the belt is not quite long enough to be pulled up over the lip on the alternator or power steering pump pulley.
If you are able to do this from underneath, have a helper pull on the wrench to move the tensioner pulley, then slide the belt onto the water pump pulley last. It's way down at the bottom, all the way to the front, and it is smooth with no lip to go over. If you have to do this by yourself, it feels a little awkward, but I use one hand to pull the wrench, then the other hand to push the belt down onto the stationary idler pulley. On the engine, that idler pulley is just above, and as I recall, just a few inches ahead of the tensioner pulley.
Tension on the belt is released by pulling the wrench forward, as though you were trying to tighten the bolt. I can't remember exactly which wrenches I used other than they were two Craftsman combination wrenches. The box end of the 15mm wrench goes on the bolt head in the middle of that pulley. The box end of the second wrench hooks to one tooth of the open end 15mm to give you a longer handle. That alone makes moving the tensioner arm much easier, but in addition, your knuckles will end up right next to a black, thin strap holding the aluminum AC lines to the strut tower, (body sheet metal). You can hook the second wrench on that strap. That keeps the tension released while you work with the belt.
It wasn't uncommon to run into a tensioner pulley with a pivot bolt that was rusted tight. You may still be able to move it with a wrench, but it won't spring back under spring pressure. When they're not rusted tight, you can usually make them move by tugging really hard on the belt. Also, when they're rusted tight, you may find when tugging on the wrench, the pulley's center bolt turns tighter without moving the pulley's arm.
One other thing to watch for, if the tensioner is fully released, yet the belt won't slide over a smooth pulley, more than likely the belt is not fully seated on a ribbed pulley. When this happened to me, I usually found the belt was riding up on the outer lip of the alternator pulley.
If you do have to replace the tensioner pulley, one suggestion is to visit a pick-your-own-parts salvage yard and find a 3.3L you can look at first. The 15mm nut is on the backside of the mounting plate, at the end of the bolt that arm pivots on. It kind of sits in a pocket, which is why one wrench might be enough. At the dealership, I had MAC and Craftsman wrenches. A coworker had Snapon wrenches. We borrowed them back and forth when we needed two different wrenches to start loosening that nut. I'm pretty sure there isn't enough depth to fit in a socket and ratchet.
My Dynasty has a lot of room between the engine and firewall, so replacing the tensioner can be done quite easily from on top. You don't have that extra room on the minivans, so it has to be done from underneath, from behind the front cross member. It's actually very easy with the van on a hoist. If you do this by raising the front tires off the ground, please be sure to use jack stands so you can come back to see us again.
Mar 9, 2026 at 3:56 PM