Thrown belt

[ghunt]

Any ideas as to what would cause my truck to throw the serpentine belt, when there is no apparent damage to the belt itself and nothing is locked up?

I left my girlfriend's house tonight, and before I made it 3 miles I noticed the battery light was on...and found out the truck had apparently thrown the belt. I couldn't really get off the road at the time so I just tried my best to get it home with no brakes and no power steering (fortunately it was only another 5 miles or so).

The temp gauge never went above the A in NORMAL, but when I got home there was a bunch of steam coming out from under the hood...the radiator had already been leaking, I just hope I didn't really damage it.

Anyway, the belt was still on the upper pulleys but it had been thrown off the water pump, crank, tensioner, idler and power steering pulleys (this is a brand new belt too). I can't tell what happened. I did just notice that there is power steering fluid EVERYWHERE on the driver's side of the engine compartment (I added some yesterday because it looked a bit low, the cap was still on but apparently it blew out of the vent hole in the cap), and there was some coolant around the radiator on the passenger side. Everything spins freely. ***?



This truck has it out for me. Today (the 12th) was even my birthday and this thing managed to get in one last shot, at 11:40 PM.

Guess I'll look at it in the morning. whee...

 

[david85]

If your force the steering with muscle power alone and the pump is not turning, the fluid will squirt out of the filler cap of the reservoir. Thats just the nature of the system so its nothing to worry about. Sometimes I'll want to roll my truck around without starting the engine and it will do it then too as long as I am turning the wheel with the engine off.

A few things could have happened to pop the belt off. One, is a stick may have been caught somewhere and that forced the belt off. Another possibility is one of the pulleys, or the idler itself is no longger square. If there is a constant chirping noise, this could be the case. The auto tensioners tend to be problematic sometimes with these trucks so thats something to look closely at too.

A little while ago my vacuum pump fell off because of a snapped bolt. Its not the identical setup in your truck but maybe something like that happened.

I don't have serp belt in my truck so thats all I can think of off the top of my head.
For what its worth, Happy Birthday.

 

[Fozz]

It's probably either the tensioner or the idler pulley. If the pulley is plastic after time they start to 'round'. The belt will start riding off of the pulley. Or, the tensioner will get some slop in it after some time and droop down, allowing the belt to ride more forward on the pulley, eventually riding off.

Make sure you inspect that belt, now that it's been pitched. Cause if any of it found the fan while dancing around in there, it might be toast now!

It seems like I only get 2 years out of a tensioner. They either cause the belt to throw, or it developes a squeak and I replace it.

 

[Goofyexponent]

My truck did this to me a month or so ago. In the freezing cold and rain. I had to lay under it to put the belt back on and it hasn't popped off since. I checked everything out, pulleys. bolts beackers tentioner idler and everything checked out.

On another note, tomorrow is my birthday, and I will NOT be driving my truck ANYWHERES based on your luck on your birthday lol.

 

[Greenie]

When I first bought my '93 IDI the belt always squealed, I took it back quite a few times until Ford had a service bulletin on the trouble. As I remember one of the aluminum castings was out of square - Ford replaced it (free) and it's been golden ever since. The truck now has 255K miles on it with the original tensioner and maybe the 5th belt.

 

[ghunt]

Well I JUST replaced the idler pulley and tensioner pulley- I replaced the idler pulley last week (the old one siezed up), and I replaced the tensioner pulley 2 days ago because it had been squealing (didn't do it at all after I put on the new tensioner pulley). I had noticed the belt was riding toward the front of the idler pulley, but I didn't figure it was that big of a deal since it had been like that for probably week with no problems.

Well I guess I'll have to go clean it up and look it over again, and make sure everything's OK. I hope I can get it started today, definitely gonna need the glow plugs.

 

[ghunt]

I just went out and put the belt back on...the belt is in perfect shape, I honestly can't figure out what might have happened to it. It does ride toward the front edge of the idler pulley, but I looked at the old idler and the belt rode toward the front edge of that one too. It almost looks like it needs a wider pulley on the idler. Honestly if this one goes out I think I might try using the tensioner pulley from a gasser truck on there in place of the idler, because it's wider and I think the belt would ride better on it.

Anyway I got it started up and everything seemed fine, so I pulled it around by the garage and some coolant was dripping off the bottom rail of the radiator. I'm really hoping it's just some that collected there last night and it was just that stuff dripping off because it didn't really drip while it was running (facing slightly downhill), but I can see I'm gonna need to get this radiator recored or fixed anyway. The plus side of that is that my girlfriend's dad owns a radiator shop. Negative side is that I don't want to deal with that right now. sigh.


edit: Well, the radiator is definitely leaking. Not bad, but it's a slow drip while the truck is running.

Should I try some type of radiator stop leak? What's the best stuff for that?

 

[franklin2]

I have never tried this, but some people swear that putting a raw egg in the coolant and then running the engine will stop a minor coolant leak. I would be curious if you tried it and if it actually would work.

I have put brake fluid in the engine oil to stop minor engine oil leaks, and that does work.

 

[Agnem]

I have put brake fluid in the engine oil to stop minor engine oil leaks, and that does work.

Ooo... sounds scary. Brake Fluid is NOT a good lubricant.

 

[JohnDeStef]

I just went out and put the belt back on...the belt is in perfect shape, I honestly can't figure out what might have happened to it. It does ride toward the front edge of the idler pulley, but I looked at the old idler and the belt rode toward the front edge of that one too. It almost looks like it needs a wider pulley on the idler. Honestly if this one goes out I think I might try using the tensioner pulley from a gasser truck on there in place of the idler, because it's wider and I think the belt would ride better on it.

I saw my belt riding far on the front of my new idler pulley too. Thought nothing of it.

The truck ate two Gatorback belts in less than 100 miles.

I pulled the idler pulley (left the bracket on), and added a properly sized washer to the back side of the pulley out so the belt will ride in the correct position. I shimmed it out maybe 1/16th of an inch.

You will need a large T50 torx to get the pulley off.

No problems since.

 

[Fozz]

FYI, the tensioner assembly can wear over time too and droop down. Even if you have a good pulley on it, the belt could ride forward on the pulley. So what I'm saying is, check the tensioner too, not just the pulleys. Hopefully you figure it out (without spending a lot of $$). I buy my tensioners from Napa and they're not cheap, but they're cheaper than Ford.

 

[NoDaK]

Should I try some type of radiator stop leak? What's the best stuff for that?

when i worked at a parts house i answered this question 10 times a day. stopleak only does one thing, clog holes. it doesnt know the difference between the hole in your radiator and the channels its going through in your motor. its really bad stuff. all it will do is cost you more in the long run. your still going to have to repair your radiator. if your looking for a good temp fix, try some jb weld were its leaking, if you can get to it. either way, fix it the right way.

I have never tried this, but some people swear that putting a raw egg in the coolant and then running the engine will stop a minor coolant leak. I would be curious if you tried it and if it actually would work.

see above post.

 

[ghunt]

Well I found out that the coolant leak and thrown belt are at least somewhat related. I don't really get it, I put the belt back on yesterday morning and it all seemed to be fine, so I left for work and got there with no issues.

In the afternoon, I started the truck and let it run for about 15 minutes to warm up (it's been in the 20's here), left work, didn't even make it a mile and it threw the belt. I pulled off the road and popped the hood, and there was coolant all over the upper pulleys and the belt.

I have no idea where this coolant came from, but it appears that it might be coming from somewhere around the upper hose. I really don't know, and it's not too easy to tell.

BTW, did you guys know that spraying belt dressing on your belt while the engine is running will make it throw the belt? I found that out and ruined my brand new $35 belt in the process (got wrapped around behind the fan). This just gets better all the time.

 

[franklin2]

BTW, did you guys know that spraying belt dressing on your belt while the engine is running will make it throw the belt?

Belt dressing has a liquid carrier that lets you spray it out of the can, but evaporates in a few seconds and leaves the sticky stuff behind. In that first moment you spray it on, it's pretty slick till it sets and gets tacky.

Sounds like you have a alignment problem, and the belt is barely hanging on. If something makes the belt slick, like coolant or the initial belt dressing spray, it is sliding off the side of the idler. Like the other guys said, I think you need to carefully study the pulleys and make sure they are flat across, and make sure the belt is centered in the pulleys.

 

[ghunt]

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.