[V8] starter / serpentine belt BTDT?

[cobram at juno.com]

 The "gotcha" on the starter is the Allen bolt which faces the fire wall,
on top.
It is a bitch to get to with a conventional Allen wrench. I cut a 20mm
long 
piece off a 10mm Allen wrench, then put it in the starter
bolt with a 10mm gear wrench over the Allen.  Bolt went in an out very
easily this way.  IIRC I may have used a large screw driver to guarantee
that the Allen was well seated in the starter bolt.  You could also use 
the Allen bit from a 10mm Allen socket.

I have never removed the front end to do either the serpentine, or the
timing belt.
Just followed the procedure in the manual.  As for the "special"
Audi pin tool,  a drill bit that fits will hold just fine.
 
BCNU,
http://www.geocities.com/cobramsri/
"God's a kid with an ant farm. He's not planning anything."

Karl Middlebrooks <benzeenprophet at hotmail.com> writes:

> I've got a rebuilt Bosch starter ready to go, but having read a few 
> threads in the archives about the difficulty of some of the bolts, 
> I'm curious about the best way to go about getting the old out.
> 
> Also, I've got a new serpentine belt kit that needs to go on. On 
> first inspection, it looks like all things considered, the best way 
> to go about replacing the serpentine belt and idlers is with the 
> front removed from the car. I've got other cars to use, and it seems 
> like it's not a bad time to learn how to take the front end off the 
> car. Thoughts on replacing the best way to replace the belt without 
> removing the front end, or gotchas on taking off/replacing the 
> front? The manuals specify that a pin should be put in to keep the 
> tension off, and i don't have the Audi pin...any advice as to what 
> works/doesn't work for that?