Thanks Klaus and others for your encouragement and good advise as today i attacked my timing belt and associated bits and peices. There was no way i could have done it without taking the pulley off and it was so quick that i wondered why i bothered trying otherwise. The gap between the pulley and protruding lug was only half the thickness of the belt ( so it felt )and as i mentioned previously the tensioner had disintergrated. The belt (volvo) had barely a mark on it yet the tensioner was destroyed. You would have thought that the tensioner would have been replaced with the belt. As stated the car has done 150k and i would hate to think that the belt has never been changed. How long do these mechanical tensioners last and are they normally reliable ? I still cant beleive my good luck, i should have bought a mega millions! Thanks again David

Starting in late 1998, the manual tensioner is replaced with the belt, every 70K miles or so. In reality, the initial production run of the tensioner was faulty and tended to expire early. Volvo corrected that by 2000 and then the belt and tensioner are rated to last for 105K miles.

I suspect that the belt and tensioner were changed at about 60K miles, and then an owner changed just the belt at 140K or so - a no no.

The belt will slip over the metal doohicky, getting it off is harder than sliding a new one on. A little silicone or WD40 helps. Most of us do not have an impact gun to remove the pulley, so we just cut off the belt and slide the new one on.

I am glad your engine is in good shape. Now go to a pick&pull and get a new cover and top for the Tbelt.

Klaus
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Volvos should be saved from the junk yards, not donated.