I changed my serpentine belt last night. I have 76,000 miles on my truck and put on a Gatorback belt. My old belt squealed when shifting hard. After taking off the old belt, I could see the metal in the belt, it had some horizontal cracks in the grooves, and the back of the belt was pretty glazed over. Now I have no belt squeal at all.

This thread was a great help in changing my serpentine belt. Thank you everyone! It took me about 30 minutes to change the belt. It took me about 10 minutes of looking over everything first, so approximately 20 minutes to put the belt on.

I would like to add a few things to these directions. First is to make sure you turn the tensioner clockwise. Also, I only have a 16" breaker bar, so I used the closed end of a 7/8" wrench on the end of my breaker bar for an extension and more leverage. Finally, a 24" screwdriver to guide the belt onto the hard to reach pulleys came in handy. My forearms are too thick to get into some of those places and this helped out a lot, especially around the A/C pulley.

 

finally got around to doing it. been dreading it for a while. it's actually really simple. bought a breaker bar at harbor freight. removed the intake tube- one screw. turned the tensioner. removed belt. installed belt. checked to see if it was lined up right. everything good. test drive, no problems so far. the belt was brittle and cracked on the grooves and shiney as well. 132k miles on the clock. saved myself 150 bucks.

 

One thing to keep a close eye on are the two idler pulleys and tensioner pulley. They are prone to bearing failure, keep a close eye for what would appear as rubber build up on the pulley surfaces, you could have a bearing dragging.

 

will do. appreciate it.

 

When the belt is replaced a good practice is to replace the tensioner and the tensioner pulley also...

Here's a diagram for anyone else that comes across this thread and going to be changing their belt on a 5.4 3v.....

 

88,

Does FOMOCO par# 1L2Z6B209AA include the tensioner pulley?

Thanks,
Bubba

 

use duct tape to hold belt in position on the pulleys when you dont have a helper

 

10 minute job,

Removed Air Intake tube.
Used a breaker bar from HF, came in from driver's side and pushed down.
Slid belt off the alternator. Done. Easy.

Then started investigating what was squeaking. Spun the two top idler pulleys. ( #7 & #9 in the diagram) They seemed solid.

Spun pulley (#5 grooved), it seemed sloppy. Pretty sure that is the source
the squeak.

Noticed on the diagram that #5 is part 19A216 and #7 is the same part but that is not correct. #7 & #9 are smooth

I read the part number off the pulley (#5) and it was 6C348, which is what is listed for pulley #9. So some inaccurate info but all in all it is good.

Hoping I can get either the NSK bearing B17-102DG48 or a new pulley at the parts store. Along with another belt, probably go with Gates or Motorcraft.

Also noticed some scoring on the tensioner pulley will post a pic. Pulley spins nice, so think it is ok, but curious what would score it like that.

Bryan

 

Idler #5 was the problem....new one was not that tight on the shaft, I was
surprised. I would expect them to be tight. I torqued it down to 18ft/lbs
put the belt back on (AC compressor was a PITA) but 10 minutes and it was
squeak free.

 

Yeah, its a pretty easy job to tackle by yourself (I've done it several times doing manifold work and supercharger install). Just make sure you get the belt completely set in all the pulleys or it will lead to you destroying the belt. Ask me how I know. Pulley 5 is where it is handy to have a buddy on top holding things while you get the belt in the grooves.

 

I've replaced them on police cars at 100K and stowed the old one as an emergency spare for me or another, haven't seen one fail. They are not at all like the old single V belts of old days.

 

You still need to make sure they are completely set in the pulley though. I had 1 rib off the pulley underneath the tensioner and this is what I found when I popped the hood:

 

Fer Sure that ....

 

What would be the right brand of belt?...Motorcraft...?

 

BEST belt is a Goodyear Gatorback, if you can find one.