Serpentine belt change

[vilant]

So I bought a Goodyear Serpentine belt part #4060805 and decided to replace my old one w/ cracked ribs. On a side note I also heard a squeaking occasionally. After I pulled of the old belt I discovered the squeaking is the alternator. I'll have to find a way to lubricate it w/ silicone spray. Here's the 2 belts, new and old.

I thought this would be easy and it turned into a PIA, which included me dropping my wrench down into the valley of hell, lol. The problem I ran into was I don't have 1/2" breaker bar (not sure it would of helped), so I used my 1/2" socket wrench instead, and found out the coolant lines are in the way of pulling the tensioner all the way back (no matter which way I put the wrench in, above or below coolant line). Was able to pull the old one off and get it out. Getting a new belt in is a little tedious because it has bends in it from the packaging. Anyway, I couldn't get it around the bottom pulley, so I found a long flat bar I had to help guide it around the bottom pulley.

Once I got it around there, the rest of the pulleys were easy enough to go around except the alternator, which I did last. Again, I couldn't pull the tensioner all the way back so it wouldn't go around the alternator pulley, so I improvised. I tied the wrench back to the coolant line w/ a piece Romex (the tensioner doesn't pull that hard as to damage the line).

And came around the passenger side with another long bar and pushed on it from there.

I know, I know everybody's rolling they're eyes at me, but I didn't know what else to do. It went on easy as pie after that. Does anyone know of a better way that doesn't involve draining coolant and removing the coolant lines and better than my caveman tactics, lol?