Serpentine Belts & Tensioners

[icanfixall]

Look at this tensioner around the 8 oclock position. See the adjustment and pointer. That pointer MUST be located in the frames of that marked area. If it not then your going to loose the belt. You will need a flash lite and an ispection mirror to look at it when its on the engine. A too short belt will look like this because its unloaded. And if the belt is too short the pointer will be at the other end tight against that mark. We have had trouble buying the correct length belts too. Some of the alteranters have differant size pulleys on them. I learned this from towcat. I believe I have the 111 1/2 inch belts but I would have to check to be sure. Same tensioner marks are on the shock absorber type tensioner.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/7-3-FORD-DI...ries&hash=item3f25e5be7a&vxp=mtr#ht_582wt_734

 

[idiabuse]

V-Belts + Gates Green Stripe Belts= long trouble free life


Javier

 

[LCAM-01XA]

V-belts are a pain in the posterior to change when needed tho. Plus alternator pulley can only go down to like 2.8" or so, as opposed to 1.9" with the serpentine setup. To heck with those non-guided serpentine pulleys tho, they suck. I've never ever had an engine with guided pulleys throw a belt, even when belt wasn't perfectly aligned.

Random possibly useful info:
5.0 Mustang tensioner pulley is guided and 3" (76mm) diameter. Plastic, possibly steel from the dealership.
5.0 Crown Vic tensioner/idler pulley is guided and 3.5" (90mm) diameter. Plastic, dealer should have it in steel.

IDIs supposedly use 3" or 3.5" or a combination of the two. The ones I've seen in person have had two 3" pulleys.

All of these pulleys are made for 6-rib belts and run the same 17mm (ID) x 12mm (W) bearing so they interchange.

 

[icanfixall]

Javier.. How many V belts will you be carrying. Then we all know the first belt to fail is the alternater belt. And thats the first belt on the engine pulleys. So all the other belts MUST be removed to get that single belt replaced. Thats plenty of bolts and adjustments to be made. So I loose one serpentine belt. Gee. So behind the rear seat is a tensioner. An idler and the tools to install this. If there is nothing wrong with all that. Just a failed belt. Well I thread the new belt on the pulleys and make one adjustment with a 48 inch breaker bar and one socket. Pop the belt over the last pulley and close the hood. All is good. I'm running again in under 5 minutes. Simple. Fast and about the easiest belt to change.. No adjustment to get too tight or loose either. Sure, if that belt fails I loose everything including brakes but with hydroboost I know I have two pumps of the peddle. I will agree with V belts there is the redundancey factor of seperate belts running differant items so there is some safety in that. I have lost two alternater belts and two vacuum pump belts. The alternater belts were hell on a hot engine on the open road. I'm a serpentine belt man now. I would not try to talk anyone into changing from V belts to serpentine belts. I do wonder why all newer autos and trucks run serpentine now instead of V belts...

 

[LCAM-01XA]

I do wonder why all newer autos and trucks run serpentine now instead of V belts...

Cause it packages better - you can get a whole lot better pulley wrap so you can run smaller pulleys and cram more of them in less space. All without losing performance or durability. And serviceability is a piece of cake too. That's what I really hate about V-belts - way too many things to loosen and tighten, and they all take different sockets. At least my belts are three of the same kind now, that sorta makes it easier - if one goes just move the ones before it 1 position and add new one on the very front. Takes 4 idler pulleys to do that tho.

 

[junk]

I'm Ok with v-belts. I've broken a power steering pump mount before and was able to cut the belt off and keep trucking. Now a serpentine belt is easy to change though. My 89 and my 93 both have new a/c compressors. So I'll be running the 89 with V-belts and the 93 with Serpentine. Truthfully I don't remember the last time I had belt issues on any vehicle.

Gary thanks for bringing this up. I'll have to verify it on my 93 when I put it back together here in the next week.

 

[idiabuse]

Javier.. How many V belts will you be carrying. Then we all know the first belt to fail is the alternater belt. And thats the first belt on the engine pulleys. So all the other belts MUST be removed to get that single belt replaced. Thats plenty of bolts and adjustments to be made. So I loose one serpentine belt. Gee. So behind the rear seat is a tensioner. An idler and the tools to install this. If there is nothing wrong with all that. Just a failed belt. Well I thread the new belt on the pulleys and make one adjustment with a 48 inch breaker bar and one socket. Pop the belt over the last pulley and close the hood. All is good. I'm running again in under 5 minutes. Simple. Fast and about the easiest belt to change.. No adjustment to get too tight or loose either. Sure, if that belt fails I loose everything including brakes but with hydroboost I know I have two pumps of the peddle. I will agree with V belts there is the redundancey factor of seperate belts running differant items so there is some safety in that. I have lost two alternater belts and two vacuum pump belts. The alternater belts were hell on a hot engine on the open road. I'm a serpentine belt man now. I would not try to talk anyone into changing from V belts to serpentine belts. I do wonder why all newer autos and trucks run serpentine now instead of V belts...

Well I agree with most ya said but since 1999 when I got my truck I still use the same belts, I bought all gates green stripes, they have about 150,000 miles on them and 14 years? Ima gonna be pissed if I throw any tomorrow!


Javier

 

[icanfixall]

I have never found a better V belt than a Gates Green Stripe and thats going way back to the early 70s. Those belts wear like steel and then some. The stuff I have bought at EVERY fake a$$ autoparts stores during the years have been horrible compared to Gates. I wanted and needed a simpler belt system so I moved to the serpentine. I do keep a complete spare serpentine belt set of pulleys and both aluminum mounts plus the tensioner and idler. One never knows. No Ken. Those mounts and pulleys are not behind the rear seat. Well one is. Thats the vacuum pump pulley. I bought two new ones when I made the change to serpentine.

 

[Silver Burner]

I definitely appreciated having the serpentine in my 93 E350 Class C when my vacuum pump took a dump a few weeks ago. The belt was not even a small issue. The 3 little bolts holding the stupid pump on were a different seized in place story though...

 

[Silver Burner]

I need to update my sig and my pic to show my Born Free anyway since I no longer have my crew cab...