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- Broken Belts Can Leave You Stranded
- The Old V-Type Belts
- Avoid These Mistakes
- How to Measure Belt Tension
- Your Old Car Might Need A “Matched Set” of Two Belts
- New Style Serpentine Belts, New Technology to Learn
- You Will Probably Need Special Tools to Replace Your Serpentine Belts
- Keep Spares
- Don’T Get Confused
- Fun Facts
A fan belt failure is one of the few breakdowns you can fix yourself on the side of the road. Even if you don’t plan to ever replace the belts yourself, at home or otherwise, it’s still good to know how it’s done. So, let’s become conversant in the operation.
You’ve seen these not only on older cars but also on lawn mowers, washing machines, clothes driers and on big floor fans. V-belts work well on equipment that doesn’t turn very fast and that has a lot of room for big diameter pulleys. V-belts are designated by their measurements, which is width across the top surface in fractions of an inch, and by ...
Make Sure You Get the Right Size
If the parts store gives you the proper length V-belt, but one in a too-narrow width (it has happened), the narrow belt will ride much lower in the v-shaped groove on its pulley. It won’t have enough traction and it will slip, especially when it stretches with use. If you have problems with power steering belts squealing, suspect you have the wrong belt(s).
Don’t Pry the Belts off
You will see YouTube videos of people replacing fan belts by prying them off the pulleys, then prying the new ones on or by bumping the starter to turn the engine. Don’t do that, as it bends the pulleys, which are made of thin, cheap metal stampings (for V-belts). Learn where the adjustments are, it’s intuitive, then loosen them, and replace the belts in the safe, proper way. You will very likely have to re-tighten the brand-new belts when they stretch, perhaps after 100 miles. To do that, yo...
Don’t Install Belts too Tight
Why not just install the new belts a little too tight to allow for stretching? Because that extra tension can rapidly ruin the small bearings in the alternator and water pump. That’s why.
You are supposed to use a tension gauge, which resembles a fishing scale. If you can actually find an ancient tensioner gauge, you would hook it on the midpoint of the longest stretch of belt between two pulleys, and measure how much the belt flexes right there. It sounds complicated, yes, and besides, you don’t have the gauge. There’s another way ...
Resto-modsare all the rave nowadays, so you might come across some unique technology. Some V8 engines used a double belt system to drive both the alternator and another accessory, where a single belt would not have been strong enough to drive them both. Fine and well. But a problem will come into play if you install two belts that came off the asse...
As cars became smaller than the two-ton behemoths that once roamed the highways, engine compartments became more compact and cramped. The big diameter V-type pulleys would no longer fit in the smaller spaces. Also, the newer, tiny engines turn at much higher revolutions. Enter the serpentine belt, which is very common these days. Very thin, they ca...
The spring you have to compress to loosen a serpentine belt is extremely powerful, enough to break fingers or a hand if it slings a wrench into flesh. Stay safe working on your car. Proper tools to leverage the tensioner are inexpensive and readily available at any good parts store. Chances are the right tensioner tool for your car will cost less t...
So, after you replace the belt, keep the old one in the trunk as an emergency spare. On long trips, you might consider taking the tensioner wrench along with you, just in case.
Ok, it looked so simple, so you took the old serpentine belt off but now you can’t figure how to route the new belt correctly around the myriad pulleys. No problem, even if your car does not have the handy diagram of pulleys and belt routing somewhere under its hood, as many vehicles do. Google it. Try the belt manufacturer’s website. They post hel...
Don’t use V-belts made for lawn equipment on your car. Those belts are not strong enough for high speed, high temperature use on a car engine. Serpentine belts can last for 100,000 miles. But the small idler and tensioner pulley bearings won’t last 200,000 miles. So, when you replace the serpentine belt, replace the idlers and tensioner pulleys as ...
Jul 20, 2020 · How to Replace a Worn or Broken Fan Belt. A simple parts replacement on a car can often turn into a costly visit to the mechanic when they tuck on hours of labour. It also seems unnecessary to take your vehicle all the way the garage for a simple fix that you could easily do yourself with the right parts.
Your fan belt, also called a drive belt or V belt, is an essential engine component. A faulty fan belt can cause decreased performance or, worse, cause your vehicle to stall. In this article, we’ll discuss what the fan belt does, seven symptoms of a worn-out fan belt, and then answer five fan belt FAQs.
Fan Belt Replacement. Are you concerned that your fan belt is on its way to complete disrepair? Worried that your aging fan belt might be too hard to fix, or that if you drive it longer it might cause your car more trouble? And are you wondering what the difference is between a fan belt and a serpentine belt?
Jul 5, 2021 · A simple fan belt inspection will tell you if your fan belt needs replaced. Signs of wear on a fan belt might include cracking and fraying. It's important to get a frayed, cracked fan belt replaced before it snaps and you find yourself stranded on the side of the road calling for a tow.
Jan 27, 2019 · You have to be able to work your way around the engine and its parts. You also need to be able to recall where the belt runs through. Replace a fan belt Fan belts or “serpentine belt” are...
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