ac vbelt replacement 740 gle

hi,
i just bought a volvo! yay! so, it's 740 gle wagon. the ac isn't
working, but when i checked under the hood, the v-belt was missing. can
you tell me how easy it is to put the belt on myself?
thanks!
jun

 

If the belt isn't there, there's a lot more wrong with the A/C than just
a missing belt.

That said, the compressor has 2 tensioners, one front and one rear. The
front one has a long bolt coming in from the side to enable easy belt
tensioning. The bolts are coach bolts, so no wrenches needed, nuts
should be 13 mm. You need a 6 inch wobble extension or a universal
joint to access the rear nut. And in my climate it's likely the
aforementioned long tensioner bolt is seized and will break.

Once you get the belt on, then you can try to find out why the belt was
removed in the first place.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)

 

It's a typical job, although there are bolts at the front and back of the
compressor that have to be loosened to swing the compressor so the belt can
be put on and tensioned. The rear bolt is not real easy to get to but not
awful.

The bigger question is why the belt is missing. Try turning the pulley on
the compressor by hand to make sure it turns smoothly. If not, the bearing
in the clutch is bad and the belt was removed to compensate.

Mike

 

Perhaps the prior owner removed the belt in order to avoid the
parasitic loss of power which running the AC causes.

 

Don't be silly, why would anyone do that? They could just turn off the
AC, besides this isn't a racecar, the drag really isn't bad and WELL
worth it for nice cold air on a hot date.


As others have commended, the AC system is 99% sure to be dead. If the
compressor still turns freely then it can be repaired, it will need all
new O-rings, a flush, retrofit kit from Volvo, new reciever/dryer and
possibly a new hose or two. You can usually fix it for a few hundred
bucks total, depending on how much of the work you can do yourself.

 

Silliness has little to do with my observation.

Some people DO disable working AC to end parasitic loss of engine
power, especially if they live in climates where AC is not a necessity
of life.

You must know nothing of performance / hot-rodding tips.

Pity.

 

There's already a switch on the dash to disable the AC, when you turn it
off the compressor is not driven and you have negligible drag.

I know plenty about performance and hot rodding, several buddies are
into rally racing and I've spent plenty of time under the hood of my own
turbocharged 242 but that's irrelevant, this is a 3100 LB Volvo luxury
car with a whopping 114HP four cylinder engine and automatic
transmission, good car yes, but hot rod? Give me a break, the AC is the
least of the obstacles to making that thing go fast.


My own observation, I've worked on dozens of Volvos, I've *never* seen a
700 series older than '91 in which the original AC still worked without
being overhauled. I've also *never* seen the belt removed from working
AC. What I have seen numerous times are seized AC clutches which then
seized the unlubricated compressor in a long dead AC system and threw
the belt.

 

Interesting, performance / hot rodding and Volvo 740 gle (almost) in the
same sentence.

Richard
Web pages: http://www.caravanningnow.co.uk/ - caravanning,
http://www.rcole.org/ - personal web site and http://www.homeindorset.co.uk
because I loves the domain name for email.

 

Oh, please.

A PO could be a starry-eyed 18 year old who inherited the staid Volvo
from his parents.

God knows what go-fast tricks he or others may have heard of.

Oh yeah, youth, being youth, expect to be able to make a silk purse of
a sow's ear.

Vroom vroom

 

Although if the A/C is turned off and the clutch bearing is okay, the drag
is nearly nothing. A good clutch is essentially an idler pulley until the
clutch is engaged.

Of course, the previous owner may not have understood that.

Mike