Stripping down ready to fit new coolant pump. Can't compress tensioner to fit holding tool. Have 19mm socket and 18in breaker bar on idler pulley bolt but make no impression. Just a few creaks which i think is bolt tightening a few degrees. I'm worried about stripping a thread in the pulley bracket. The Haynes manual says just press down on top of belt!! Just how much force do you have to use? Car is going well with no indication of anything amiss. Should it be seized (170k mls) is a replacement already held in tension somehow?
Many thanks for any advice
Roger

When I was looking at replacing my serpentine and pulleys, I took off the wheel arch liner and tried to compress the tensioner by pulling down on the top of the belt, as the Haynes magic book of lies says to do. I pulled, then pulled some more, before virtually hanging on the belt with all my weight. The net result was tensioner compression of exactly no inches. Gave up, drove to garage, they kissed it better and lightened my wallet by £30. Well worth it for all the faffing around I would have had to do.

Progress-of a sort. Used the handle off my big trolley jack so now had a 3ft lever and had someone give me instructions from the wheelarch and pop on the keepsake. Even so it was quite an effort. Should it really take that much force? Now another dilemma, having expended all that energy tightening the tensioner pulley bolt i decided to go the other way so as to remove the pulley- the damn lever slipped knocking out the keepsake. I expected things to fly apart but nothing much happened. I have now removed the tensioner assembly to the workbench and left the stay in position with a couple of bolts through the eyes at each end as a precaution but everything is quite loose and under no strain.
Is this normal for a "loose" tensioner, i.e. 5ins long uncompressed? Does it only work over an inch of travel and is that pent up energy in compressing it to 4ins what constitutes the "bomb" people have talked about on this forum, and if it does go off, does it only "explode" an inch.
Am trying to decide whether my tensioner is serviceable and am now pretty confused-can anyone help?
The idler pulleys spin easily but sound dry,should i replace them (170k mls) ?
Roger

When I replaced the water pump on my 9000, it took me all of 30 seconds to compress the belt tensioner and slide on a home made clamp (see Haynes manual:- made of 2 bolts and a strip of metal).
I used a 24 inch breaker bar and 19mm socket, it required very little effort. Sounds like your tensioner is faulty.

I have never had that much problem compressing the tensioner, even when fitting a new one. Just used a socket and breaker bar, but, having doen it both ways, I did find it easier from underneath when it was jacked up to replace the water pump tube seals.

I doubt your pulleys are original at 170k but I would recommend replacing both pulleys (tensioner and idler) while it is apart. They are not too expensive and it saves doing it all again for a long time.

Job done, thanks to everyone who chipped in with advice. Took longer than expected due to usual problems, fastener turning on inner fender, nut siezed on wheelarch trim, pump spigot stayed in block and took some time to prise out, uncooperative tensioner etc.etc. Finished up fitting new pump/fixed tensioner wheel/idler tensioner wheel/tensioner/belt- all genuine Saab. Now runs very sweetly. There was a slight leak from the bleed hole in the pump when i finally got it to the bench. The new tensioner was quite easy to compress with my 18in breaker bar so i suppose the old one was out of spec in some way. Just a few comments on what Doive refers to as " the Haynes magic book of lies "

1."press down on the serpentine belt" Rubbish-you need a breaker bar and depending on the condition you may need an
extra long one.
2." unclip expansion tank" Oh yeah. After pulling on the triangular tab and heaving upwards i resorted to some thick plastic
coated garden wire threaded through the hole in the tab which allowed a nice hefty vertical pull. It came out a treat.
3." unsrew the 3 screws holding the water pump pulley" You can't get a Torx bit on to them satisfactorily so i was in danger
of damaging the heads. There is room to remove the pump complete with pulley and attend to it on the bench.

4. Not strictly necessary but i found it helped to drop the downpipe from the turbo, particularly when tightening some bolts
around the pump and cleaning out the pump spigot hole in the block.

One final comment. I have had the car from new and will keep it until some catastrophe happens hence i tend to use genuine Saab. This time i got all the items from Euro Saab parts direct. The service from Peter was fantastic. Most items arrived next day even when showing out of stock on their site.The longest delivery was 2 days. Far better than my local dealer and prices seem to be minimum 20% lower, frequently much more, and lower than anyone else offering genuine items. If you are looking for genuine parts i can't recommend them highly enough. I will put a post on the supplier forum.

Roger