Replacing the serpentine belt: Best way?

[Z51JEFF]

I’ve got that belt here somewhere,I kept it so I wouldn’t buy another one😁

[32valvesftw]

On my car which I believe has stock pulleys, an 80" Dayco would not fit. I went and got an 80.5 inch it went on in 15 mins and my tensioner rides in the middle of its range.

[Paul Workman]

Originally Posted by 32valvesftw

On my car which I believe has stock pulleys, an 80" Dayco would not fit. I went and got an 80.5 inch it went on in 15 mins and my tensioner rides in the middle of its range.

I stretched the take-off belt and the new belt, looped between my index fingers. Perhaps not particularly accurate - at least not to a 1/2" tolerance. But, the new belt does fit. However, I'll go see how the tensioner is positioned. (That aspect never crossed my mind until you brought it up. Hmmmm....)

[Tripler]

Not too hard to change with the plenum off lol . Got mine switched too because a few pieces had flown off it as it was 24 years old .
Glad you were able to get yours sorted Paul . Polysporin works great for cuts by the way ...

[Dynomite]

Originally Posted by Paul Workman

I stretched the take-off belt and the new belt, looped between my index fingers. Perhaps not particularly accurate - at least not to a 1/2" tolerance. But, the new belt does fit. However, I'll go see how the tensioner is positioned. (That aspect never crossed my mind until you brought it up. Hmmmm....)

Take a tape measure and hold end on back side of belt on a mark on the belt.......Run the Belt and tape measure through your fingers as you pull the belt and tape measure through your fingers until you get back to the original mark.

That be your belt length.

Then if you get a smooth Aluminum Water Pump Pulley (Pete can get them), it becomes super easy to replace the serpentine belt slipping the belt onto the Aluminum Water Pump Pulley that has no larger diameter like the Stock Water Pump Pulley........or like trying to slip the belt on any of the other pulleys that all ride on the ribbed inside of the belt.

[Atari_Prime]

Originally Posted by 1991ZR1

I think the procedure in the manual was to install the belt over and behind the water pump pulley. After the belt is around all the other pulleys, you can pull the belt forward onto the water pump pulley while pulling back on the tensioner. This worked well when I removed and reinstalled the original belt.

Even with that procedure, some belts will not go on. I had a new belt with the exact same part number as the original belt that would not go on. I think the Goodyear belt went on easily without this procedure.

Revisiting a somewhat older topic. I worked with a mechanic friend at the house the other day to install a new serpentine belt. It was relatively easy it seemed to me and I'm not much of a mechanic. The biggest issue that we ran into was the throttle body. There was not enough space between the throttle body and the top gear to get the old belt out or the new one in. So we lossened some of the torx screws holding the throttle body and were able to create enough space to get the belts through the opening. Hardest part was feeding the belts through the bottom area of the engine but that was overcome via a kind of tug-o-war effort over about 5 minutes. Whole job took about 20 minutes start to finish.