Why serpentine?

[gunz]

I removed the serpantine belt from the old chave and went back to v belts. I live the v style, Far lesss chance of getting stuck ont he side of the road with v belts.

Its not one all inclusive belt.

 

[mattplumber]

I had the same problems with my serp belt until I replaced the idler and tensioner pulleys with genuine Ford parts. All is well now. And I am a firm believer in the tensioner with the damper on it. It was a tough item to find, but well worth the money in my opinion.

 

[icanfixall]

Ebay has the shock absorber tensioners all day long. The seller is in Texas and the price was $49.00 last year... Now its $69.00. They also sell the open and closed spring types too really low cost... The are oem parts..

 

[Diesile]

Ebay has the shock absorber tensioners all day long. The seller is in Texas and the price was $49.00 last year... Now its $69.00. They also sell the open and closed spring types too really low cost... The are oem parts..

Thanks, I just ordered one.

 

[icanfixall]

I'm here to help...

 

[rjjp]

Thanks y'all.

 

[Kevin 007]

Well if you look at most newer vehicles with serpentine belts, you will notice that there is a LOT of tension on most if not all of them. Thats pretty ******* the bearings, ....So....we also know that new stuff is not designed to last half a lifetime like they used to so im thinking that this is a sneaky way of killing accessories faster. ****** me off. Some of them are so tight im not sure how accessories even last as long as they do..

Where as with a v-belt system, I always have my belts slightly on the loose side to be easy on the bearings of the water pump, PS pump etc...

 

[redmondjp]

Well if you look at most newer vehicles with serpentine belts, you will notice that there is a LOT of tension on most if not all of them. Thats pretty ******* the bearings, ....So....we also know that new stuff is not designed to last half a lifetime like they used to so im thinking that this is a sneaky way of killing accessories faster. ****** me off. Some of them are so tight im not sure how accessories even last as long as they do..

Where as with a v-belt system, I always have my belts slightly on the loose side to be easy on the bearings of the water pump, PS pump etc...

I understand what you are saying, but the additional slippage caused by this will wear out both the belts and pulleys prematurely. V-belt drive systems lose between 20-30% of the transmitted power, even when tight.

There is no dark conspiracy behind serpentine belt systems, and I don't know of any excessive wear or shortened component life caused by them. They are used on all heavy trucks now and those typically run a million miles per year.

 

[finitetime]

Check the length of the belt of get one an inch shorter. I changed tension pulley and idler and still had it come off and nick the radiator. Put one on that was 1 inch shorter and have not had a problem with it coming off. That said I'm sure there's a reason it was coming off I just couldn't find it. Everything was tight and straight.

 

[alienturtle]

not to really hijack or anything but while we are on the subject. Do they make a tensioner with a small V belt pully on it?

 

[subway]

Check the length of the belt of get one an inch shorter. I changed tension pulley and idler and still had it come off and nick the radiator. Put one on that was 1 inch shorter and have not had a problem with it coming off. That said I'm sure there's a reason it was coming off I just couldn't find it. Everything was tight and straight.

you bring up a good point, for some reason not all the serp belt setups for our IDI's are the same length. there could be a belt on there that is to long.

 

[finitetime]

I went with the shorter belt cause someone reached over pulled on the belt and said the belts not tight enough. There were both new!! So after discussing it I went with a shorter belt to get more tension.

 

[icanfixall]

Belt length is important. Look at the front of the tensioner. There is a scale that tells you if the belt has the correct tension on it. It also indicates the proper length too. There is a pointer that shows on the scale..

 

[SparkandFire]

Both have their advantages... Some say that on a V-belt setup you can loose a belt and still make it home. That never worked out for me. I went cheap on an alternator belt once and had it give the underside of the hood a love-tap, which took out all the other belts in the process. Nothing but a mangled mess of crap under the hood after that one. But, a serp belt is the same way.

For me it is easier to R&R the serpentine belt, and if you have to remove a belt driven component (like I did last weekend when I had to pull the alternator off to get to the thermostat housing) it is much faster to grab the 15mm 1/2 drive socket and the breaker bar and pop the belt loose in 30 seconds.

I personally wouldn't swap a V belt setup for a serpentine belt, nor would I go the other direction... the pro's and con's are somewhat of a wash really.