Air Con: How do I refit the Aircon Compressor, S80/V70

[Bernard46]

I followed the details in an excellent article on this forum about how to remove the air con compressor so as to reshim the clutch but I now have one small problem. I cannot get the compressor back onto the engine! This is a bit basic. As you all know there is very, very little room when working on the compressor on S80/V70 cars and it is virtually impossible to actually see where the screw holes are on the engine body since they are underneath the alternator.

I have the aux belt all aligned and correctly set up but for some reason the compressor just does not seem to want to go back up against the engine block - since I cannot see the holes for the 4 screws on the block I'm really at a loss as to how I can get the darned thing back on. I don't think there can be any wiring etc which has dropped down behind the compressor. When I try to align it up with the holes the compressor seems to pivot in towards the engine block at the opposite end from the clutch - I don't know if this is significant or not. Can anyone give me any tips or clues as to how to get the compressor back on please? The car is undriveable otherwise.

[cheshired5]

As you know, the the top 2 holes of the aircon mount and the bottom 2 holes of the alternator share the same 2 engine block mounting holes and a long bolt passes through both units to secure to the block.
Can you not even get the aircon and alternator holes to align?
Is the alternator still in situ held on with just its top mounting bolt?

[cheshired5]

Also, from memory, the top holes on the compressor shouldn't be flush to the block.
The bottom mount of the alternator is flush to the block and the compressor is bolted flush to the alternator.
As an extra, I would be fitting the aux belt as the final job not part way through.

[Orca2]

As posted above getting the compressor back in with the belt on is just about impossible. Keep the belt off until you have it built back up. It is a major knuckle scraper of a job but once you get one bolt you can pivot on it to get the rest, dont tighten any of them up too much you need to be able to manipulate it until you have them all started.
Belt is easy to fit ,just back off the tensioner and take your time. There is so little room you start to wonder if you will ever get it in if I can do it anyone can .
Good luck

[Bernard46]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I put the belt on first because I was afraid I just wouldn't be able to fit if afterwards given there is no room to get your hands down the side of the belt to lever it over the pulleys, but I'll try keeping it off in the morning. Just as a matter of interest - one of you mentioned the tensioner and implied there was a way of slackening it, or did I mis-interpret that.

I hadn't realised the alternator bottom holes and the compressor top ones shared two bolts but I'm not sure that makes too much difference - I haven't removed the alternator so I guess I'm trying to fit the compressor to the alternator and via the top two bolts and to the engine block with the bottom two - sorry for the confusion there. I had expected the back of the compressor to mate up with what you now say is the bottom of the alternator, but I can't seem to get within about 1/2 - 1 inch of it - maybe it is a problem with having the belt on and therefore not enough play - I too had thought that once I got one bolt in I would be fine, but I can't even get one bolt in - I'm trying with the top two bolts first and leaving the bottom two till later.

[Orca2]

If you put a socket on the tensioner pulley bolt and pull the socket wrench towards the front of the car the pulley pivots back off the belt , there are two holes in the tensioner body which in theory will align with each other allowing you to stick something like an allen key in through them , thus locking the pulley back from the belt. In practice it is very difficult to do this. It took two of us to put the belt back on mine , one holding the tensioner back using a socket bar ,and one fishing the belt around the pulleys.
Its a finicky pita job to do , but bolting the compressor in while the belt is under tension is well nigh impossible.
Betcha got no knuckles left by now!
Easier for an octopus or get a mate to help. Remember turn the tensioner spindle bolt as if to tighten it it will swivel back as you push the socket bar towards the front of the car.

[cheshired5]

There'll be duplications here with Orca's response but I'd already typed it but couldn't send, so here goes anyway.
You lock the tensioner by inserting a strong pin/nail/slim screwdriver once you've tensioned it enough to line up the two holes.
You then have all the slack you need to work without fear of it springing back.
BE CAREFUL! The spring is strong and the loss of a fingertip is entirely possible.
On my D5, I gave myself plenty of room to work by removing the timing belt cover (1 bolt) and unclipping the pas fluid reservoir out of the way.
When tensioning the spring, start with your bar/ratchet just past upright leaning towards the back of the bay.
Bring it all the way forwards and you can lean on the bar with your right hand, whilst your left locates the pin holes.
This means no extra hands are required.
I wouldn't recommend using the pulley bolt to tension the spring as it only has a low recommended torque value (around 20Nm) so there's a danger of overtightening it and affecting the pulley's free running.
Instead use a securely seated T60 torx to tension the spring as that's why the hole's there.

[Bernard333]

I removed the auxilliary mounting bracket on my V70 D5 in the past few days to grind it down a bit so I can get access to the thermostat housing more easily ( its not a problem on the petrol engines) so also had to remove the aircon unit and leave it dangling. I agree with cheshireD5 and Orca2 you cannot do it with the belt and alternator in place.

[Bernard46]

Thanks Guys for all your help - I eventually gave up trying to get the air con clutch plate off - the puller I made wasn't strong enough for the job. I finally managed to get the condenser back up having taken your advice about the belt and left it off. Then came the challenge of getting the belt on. On my S80 2.4 petrol the tensioner wheel seemed to pull forward towards the front of the car and when I had twigged this I jury rigged a spanner to catch the bolt and a crowbar to lever the spanner with to move the tensioner forward and this then allowed me enough slack to get the belt over the power steering pump wheel to get it on. If I tried to move the tensioner towards the back of the car I just started to undo the bolt holding the tensioner on! Its all back together and none the worse for the experience - apart from me who is about a stone lighter due to the amount of sweat! Omce again many thanks for eberyone's valuable assistance.
Bernard

[cheshired5]

At least you're sorted
It's odd because Haynes also says about doing the pas pulley last when refitting the belt but I think it makes the job harder because the pas pulley has a raised edge to get over which is tricky when you have so little slack to work with.
My final pulley of choice is the tensioner because it has no such "lip".
I do the crank first, then air con, followed by pas in a reverse L shape, then alternator, back to the idler and finishing with the tensioner.
I'm going to a vid for this on my D5 and hopefully it'll help the petrol people too.