Thrown belt

[mattplumber]

Grab your fan and try moving the waterpump pulley up and down to check for play. All of the symptoms described sound to me like the waterpump bearing has assed out and the movement, however slight is causing the belt to slowly walk off. I've seen this before on my truck and others. Replaced belt and tensioner/pulley and still had it happen again.

X2 on maybe using an idler pulley off a gasser or maybe a powerstroke as I think they used a serp belt with more ribs which translates to a wider idler.......

I replaced all my stuff less than a month ago and the belt still rides on the edge of the idler pulley but the tension remains tight compared to the original worn out tensioner that I replaced which the little "ear" that holds the tail of the coilspring tight had broken and caused the belt to lose tension.

Check that water pump bearing-i'll bet thats where your problem is..........

And if you can pinpoint the radiator leak, it is repairable by an old school radiator shop if you can find one. We only have one left here in memphis and they repaired mine last week. I watched them do it and if you can solder/braze copper its a piece of cake. Use lots of good Marlin flux and mixed gas on the lightest flame setting..............

 

[gatorman21218]

If the A/C clutch failed on the v-belt setup, I believe you probably could still make it home if it didn't take out any of the other belts.

it sure can. I've put 50k miles on my truck without a belt for the a/c clutch. I really like the v-belt set-up. With the serp belt your putting all your eggs in one basket. I cant see any advantage to having a serp belt and yet all cars have them now.

 

[MUDKICKR]

I just don't understand why it's doing it NOW.

The old idler siezed and it didn't even throw the belt when it did that. I replaced the idler, and the tensioner pulley was pretty sloppy so I replaced it too, and now I'm having problems with it throwing the belt. Of course I didn't have any coolant or anything else on the belt at that time either.

Maybe I just need something wider in there for the idler. sigh...I just don't know, but it's ******* me off.

i think you might have answered your problem here. put your old tensioner pulley on and see if it will throw it. if it doesnt then its your tensioner, reason i say that is with that pulley having play in it it is leveling out the tensioner. putting the new pulley on it that doesnt have play in it makes the pulley run square with the tensioner, which if its bad will tilt the pulley and throw belts.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Dumb question, but with those tensioners and idlers, do them pulleys not have ridges to keep the belt from sliding off? If they don't, then yank the pulleys and go to your favorite parts store and raid their shelves for a pulley of the same size and center bore but with ridges. I have two 5.0 Mustang tensioner pulleys in my truck that I use as idlers for the alternator and the york, they are for a 6-rib belt but I run V-belts on them and at least one is ever so slightly misaligned that if it were not for the ridge the belt would slide off it eventually. Also, TSC carries a wide selection of metal pulleys with ridges too (most automotive stuff at parts store is plastic), so you may wanna try them too.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

it sure can. I've put 50k miles on my truck without a belt for the a/c clutch. I really like the v-belt set-up. With the serp belt your putting all your eggs in one basket. I cant see any advantage to having a serp belt and yet all cars have them now.

It's convenience, and packaging - with the serp setup you can run everything off a belt that is like an inch wide, and you can easily route it around brackets and such. Go measure the width of your water pump pulley, it's like twice as thick as a serp belt pulley is. Also, serpentine belts can run plastic (smaller, lighter, cheaper to manufacture) pulleys just fine, V-belts not so much...

 

[ghunt]

Well the thrown belt issue is a moot point now, it has not done it since LAST january. In fact I haven't put a new belt on since then.

And no, the idler and tensioner pulleys don't have ridges on them...they're not necessary, and it makes it easier to install the belt. I just didn't scuff the pulleys.