more controversy re: best method to undo. Only my opinion, but overall I would say undoing retaining screws for fixed and mobile tensioner housings is far from easy as a generalisation. The access is tricky, the passage of time can make them hard to budge but the icing on the cake is the use of shallow head allen screws* as standard because if you use anything but a quality, snug fitting** allen tool bit and you are not close to perpendicular on application (much easier for this to happen due to the shallow heads) then there is a good chance of slipping and damaging the *driving* surface area which was reduced in the first place!*. If this happens, or you come across std fixings that already have damaged heads (high chance of this**) then all is not lost necessarily.
Thanks again for all the advice. I’ve got my smug face on this evening as I have successfully changed my belts. I bought a Teng Tools 1/2” drive Allen set and my T-bar undid the super-tight bolts with ease (and a loud ‘crack’). The belt change was straightforward apart from me not noticing until after I had tensioned the horizontal belt that I had somehow managed to put the old belt back on the vertical cylinder so had to start again. Doh!! I plan to re-check the tension in a week or two. The next job is new tyres as I’ve discovered that the current one, while still in almost unused condition, are 16 years old. I think better safe than sorry is the way to go with old tyres.
