well snapped an alternator belt on the NC today, have bought a new one, the cars still sitting in hamilton (small country town) about 50km north of hobart Couln't drive it because that same belt contols the fan and the water pump by the looks of it. now tomorrow i have to go back up and change the belt on the road side, can anyone tell me how easy this is going to be to do?

i dont think its too hard, the alternator is the tensioner if i remember correctly. The only pain in the a** thing is that you have to take the p/s belt off to get to the alt belt and that can be a pain to get to if you dont have the right spanners

Eh, changed many alternator belts. For some reason, if you dont get them really tight they slip, and so you'll start throwing belts. The tradeoff is that you'll wear the bearings out on things...

But youll need a 13mm ringy, 14mm ringy and ratchet and 14mm, 15/16 ringy, and i cant remember whats needed for the adjustor on the alternator. Theyre a bad design, and if you try to put oo much pressure on them, the gear just strips the teeth off the bracket. Oh well, if you have someone helping you its easy enough to jump under the car and use the tyre lever to bar it tight. Once thats done, just tighten it all up!

To remove the power steering belt, loosen the big nut on the idler pully. The smaller inner nut is the tensioner, and wont do anything for the time being. Once this is done, drop the belt off so that it sits in the fan shaft. No need to take it a** the radiator. Then take the new alternator belt, place it over a few blades on the fan, and work your way around till its all the way over. Slip it through the power steering belt, and work it into place. Youll need to loosen off both bolts on the alternator (one under car, one on the sliding bracket) before you put it on as the new belt wont fit. (while the belt is still off it might be an idea to check the way the water pump and alternator spin as well as the power steering idler). Once its on, adjust the alternator, and tighten both bolts. Whack the power steering belt back on, and you should be right to go. Make sure you have plenty of water in your tank, and let it sit idling for a sec before you drive off as its easy to boil the water when you drop the belt. If it needs a top up, do so, and youre done!

thanks andrew good advice there

well got the belt on on the side of the road wasnt to hart was windy nd pissing down with rain which wasnt fun but we got it going hehe

Or in my case when I did the belt up too tight, it snapped and smashed through the plastic undertray, and knocked off the PS belt. This was about 1km from my house! So I drove about half the distance home and it started to overheat, I stopped for 20mins, let it cool and drove the rest of the way home.
A friend even gave me a lift home before I decided to drive it because I was sure I still had a used alternator belt in the garage somewhere, could only find two power steering belts! God dammit!!