I am having some serious problems changing my alternator. I have the service manual, and it identifies the tensioner pulley. There's hardly any room between the nut and the wall, so I bought the thin extension bar and put on a standard-depth 14mm socket. I can get the socket on the nut, but nothing happens either way I turn the wrench. I went ahead and forced the old belt off and changed the alternator. I managed to get the belt on by pulling the new alternator up by hand while tightening the bolt that connects the alternator to the engine mount bracket, but I could only get one of the two bolts in that attaches the engine mount bracket to the engine. Everything worked ok, but I got worried about having the extra bolt out. I pulled up on the alternator by hand again and managed to get the second bolt into the engine, but now the belt squeals, and the voltage at the battery is only reading 12.5V!

I'm at wit's end here - how do I get this tensioner pulley to relax the tension? The service manual is incredibly unhelpful, especially for the $100-odd it cost...

On a side note, the four wires that go into the plug all pulled out. I got everything back in OK according to the circuit diagram, and it worked fine (until I tried to put the second bolt in.) Is there a way to get these to seat more permanently?