Belt blowing off

[Goofyexponent]

I have a 1993 with the serpentine belt drive on it. Last night, on our way to go get groceries, the steering got a little tight and the brakes were a little harder to push. By the time we made the 3 minute drive to the grocery store the charge gauge was showing low charge. MInutes later I lost steering then brakes. So now I am in a crowded parjing loe and I had NO steering, No brakes....fun!

Upon buying batteries for my flashlight at the Canadian Tire there, I found my belt dropped off the crank pulley?

Best part was I loaned all my tools that Ikeep in the truck to a guy in the building, and forgot to put them back. SO I had to go BACK in Canadian Tire, buy a 3/8" ratchet and a set of sockets (deep sockets at that) and try to put the belt on. I had on a brand new jacket, brand new jeans and a new shirt.....

Then.....to top it all off, it was raining cats and dogs.....

I put the belt on and drove it home, no problems. The big test comes now on the drive to work....I have my light and tools now!!

Has anyone else had this happen, or is this my truck just rebelling on payday again?

 

[RLDSL]

Did you figure out why the belt walked off? They don't just take a vacation without a reason. Has to be a idler pulley bearing going out and riding to one side or some such thing

 

[Goofyexponent]

I'm not sure...It apparently just needed a vacation lol. I drove the truck for about 45 minutes today and nothing happened. It drove along fine and the belt stayed where I put it yesterday? Then again it wsn't raining today, so it didn't feel the need to pop off in the sunlight lol.

 

[towcat]

check pulley alignment asap. belt tensioners are the major culprit. 1st version(open spring) are the weakest. 2nd and 3rd gen tensioners happen less.

 

[t-roymoose]

I had the same problem a few months ago. I also have the 93 with the same belt. my tensioner pulley was the external spring type. I couldnt tighten it enough otherwise it wouldnt move, I couldn't have it where it could move cause it would slip off the front. It aint cheep but I recomend replacing the bracket and running the enclosed spring style tensioner. It is around two hundred for the bracket and about $70 or so for the tensioner. I wasn't happy about it at first but now I dont have to worrie about loosing my belt. If you have to replace the belt a few times like me (lots of moving parts that like to chew the belt) it gets expensive anyways. It was a little bit of work to swap it all out but well worth not going through the headache when the belt comes off.

 

[BigRigTech]

Maybe you hit some deep water and the belt slipped off? My 96 F150 4x4 used to be bad for that - hit a puddle and there would be no steering or charging going on for a few seconds....

 

[forcefed]

I put my money on the belt tensioner pulley. I has the same problem when I bought my truck.