The alternator and power steering belts on my 2001 Accord 4-cylinder came off while driving (cannot understand why). Is there a tension bar or something similar to loosen to put the belts back on?

 

the alternator loosens up to adjust tension on the belt and help put it back on...

 

they both have separate adjustments ,, has work been done on that area?? timing belt ?? crank pulley did not come apart ?? a/c clutch come apart and alt belt took out p/s belt as well ?? any foreign object flew up in the belts ??

 

Sorry for not getting back here sooner.

The problem happened after lunch (the car ran normal up to that point) when I started the car to go back to work and immediately heard a pronounced noise under the hood and right in front of me. I thought "dead cat". I shut off the car and opened the hood but saw nothing. I started the car back up and could see the power steering belt fluttering, but then after about ten seconds it calmed down. Not knowing what was going on, I began driving about a block and a half when the car began making the same noise. All the dashboard indicator lights came on, it was hard to steer and acted like it was going to quit running. I made it back to my house, opend the hood and saw both belts off, but intact.

I came here to see how to get the belts back on and read in a previous post to loosen a 14mm nut on top and a 12 mm nut on the bottom, but there were two underneath so I wanted clarification. Anyway, I was able to get both belts back on and tightened everything back up, started the car, and ran into the same problem of the power steering belt getting loose and then both belts came off after about 5 seconds. I had the car towed to a shop and they are going to look at it in the morning. I will post what I find out.

As for your questions - no work has been done at all (except for an early December oil change). Also, there was nothing on the ground under where the car was parked. The only thing out of the ordinary is there is a heavy amount of snow and ice locally (Kansas) which may been thrown in there (not sure if that even matters). Short of that, I seriously came home with a fully-operable car and stepped back outside to experience this problem.

 

The source of the problem was a cracked harmonic balancer (FYI). It apparenly would vibrate and throw the belt off. I appreciate your help and this forum.

Russ

 

I'm assuming he means the crank pulley, since the balancers are internal on that motor.

 

yeah he means the crank pulley,, the inner ( middle ) rubber part separates from the metal thus the outer ( metal ) part of the pulley moves in and out ,,,i have seen a few of them