advise on taking off the belt for alternator

[adder]

ok im not exactly good with mechanical stuff
ive never taken off the belt the aternater is on and i have been advised to try taking it off and giving the alt a spin to see if it makes any noise to see if the alts going

ive been having some problems but it only ever seems to be if its a short trip once the car has been going a little while theres never a prob but on the occasional short trip i see my voltage needle drop if i hit the brakes and on a short trip it may not start again but if i leave the car a few mins its ok

i was told by some nice people on this board to take the belt off the alternator and give it a turn and see how it is and if it clicks but i have yet to do this as its kind of tight and i worry if i take it off i wont be able to get it back on and ill be completley done for (not to mention highly embarrased)

thanks for any help

best wishes
Adam

[chas]

dont know the year of your car, but if you have a single belt then there is a tensioner pulley somewhere in the system. you will need to put a wrench on the bolt and rotate to get some slack to remove the belt. there should be a belt routing diagram somewhere around the engine. it should point out which pulley is the tensioner and the direction it needs to move.

as for your problem, i dont know. the brake lights draw some power, so the needle will drop some when you brake. if you are having a charging problem, the above test is really only good to find a bad bearing on the alternator.

[PewterBird]

The tentioner pully is right below the alt. On my 99 I put a wrench on the bolt and if you are standing at the passenger fender push striaght down. It will give you the slack you need, it is really helpful if you have a second pair of hands to move the belt around.