Serpentine Belt Replace on 3rd Generation

[PatrickMarshall]

Now y'all got me thinking. I know..... that is dangerous... I have a Jacob Exhaust brake. I have been told that if the pump ever goes out, I could bypass it with the belt and fix it later. Now I am thinking I need to carry 2 spare belts of different lengths??? One to include the pump, and one to bypass the pump??? I only have 36k on the belt, but it is 5 years old. Maybe I need to be looking at this???

Thanks... ... Steve

That's what I did when my pump went out. When I finally replaced my pump, I couldn't find my longer belt and bought a new one. Then, naturally, I found it, now I carry two. 10' of belt, that's a lot to wrangle in tight spaces!

 

[LHirshman]

I am about to undertake changing this belt. It seems that some part (fan shroud & fan) need to come out to get access to the belt tensioner, yes? Has anyone seen a post with pictures on changing the belt. It seems from some of the posts that it is easy. I don't see it that way. Any advise and instructions would be very helpful. Thank you.

 

[PWong]

Release belt tension and slip belt off from AC clutch from underneath.
Remove air filter box, remove the tensioner from the top and remove belt.
Re-route the new belt and re-install the tensioner.
Apply tension and slip belt back on AC clutch from underneath.
Re-install air filter box.

 

[WoodChuck]

It's not that hard but the first time you're really scratching your head. I don't remove the air box or tensioner but I have the AFE Stage II air box.
First release tension from underneath with a 1/2" breaker bar andflip the belt off the A/C compressor. After that work the belt off the other pulleys on the top side and bring all the slack to the bottom. Next to get the belt past the tensioner you need to flip it 90 degrees so the flat side is facing front to rear and work it down between the engine and tensioner pulley. Installation is a reversal of removal. It can be done quite easily with practice.

 

[LHirshman]

It's not that hard but the first time you're really scratching your head. I don't remove the air box or tensioner but I have the AFE Stage II air box.
First release tension from underneath with a 1/2" breaker bar andflip the belt off the A/C compressor. After that work the belt off the other pulleys on the top side and bring all the slack to the bottom. Next to get the belt past the tensioner you need to flip it 90 degrees so the flat side is facing front to rear and work it down between the engine and tensioner pulley. Installation is a reversal of removal. It can be done quite easily with practice.

Thank you all for the advise.

 

[BDaugherty]

#1 best advise on changing the belt...draw a picture of the routing before removal or you could probably print it off the net.
I drew a picture on the underside of my hood with a sharpie. Geno's has very good pricing on both the belt and tensioner. Don't forget to feel the idler and fan hub while you're there. My personal preference is to pull the fan and shroud...I can have it out in 10 mins for great access. Then it's super easy to get a real good look at everything and a good time to nlow the radiator out with shop air.
My personal experience is to replace the belt and tensioner every 100k and the idler and fan hub bearing at 200k. Of course results may vary, some will get 200k out of everything factory. My belt looked fin, but made noise with the fan kicked in and engine over 2k RPM...new belt and tensioner solved that.

 

[Bob4x4]

#1 best advise on changing the belt...draw a picture of the routing before removal or you could probably print it off the net.
I drew a picture on the underside of my hood with a sharpie. Geno's has very good pricing on both the belt and tensioner. Don't forget to feel the idler and fan hub while you're there. My personal preference is to pull the fan and shroud...I can have it out in 10 mins for great access. Then it's super easy to get a real good look at everything and a good time to nlow the radiator out with shop air.
My personal experience is to replace the belt and tensioner every 100k and the idler and fan hub bearing at 200k. Of course results may vary, some will get 200k out of everything factory. My belt looked fin, but made noise with the fan kicked in and engine over 2k RPM...new belt and tensioner solved that.

The 03 is easier than the later trucks.The shroud mounting makes the dfference

 

[BDaugherty]

Agreed. On my truck I did it with the shroud in place. A few days ago I did both an 07 and an 08. I pulled the shroud on the newer trucks.

 

[MarkEkberg]

I just did this last weekend. It was terrible for a belt job. Took an hour easily when it should be a 15 min job.

learning about some the quirks of the Dodges. Don't like them, but I didn't like them on my stroke either.

 

[rscurtis]

If you think a Dodge is difficult for a belt change, look at a 6.7 Ford. You can't even SEE the belt.

 

[Wayne M.]

Hey mark, didn't you have a 7.3? Holy cow! And you complain about this? At least you didn't need to pop a hose! Really any stroke is a nightmare. The newer, the worse it is.

 

[MarkEkberg]

Hey mark, didn't you have a 7.3? Holy cow! And you complain about this? At least you didn't need to pop a hose! Really any stroke is a nightmare. The newer, the worse it is.

My 7.3 was a 96. Done in a few min with no hassle. The only problem that took me a while to figure out was the PS pump was not aligned from Fraud and it caused the belt to ride up and over the WP pulley. Wiped out a belt every year until I figured out what was happening. Then no more belt issues.

 

[Wayne M.]

My experience was with 7.3's in Econolines. No fun beyond an oil change.

 

[LHirshman]

Well I changed the serpentine belt. The engineers that designed this engine must have been smoking something recently made legal in Colorado. I found a picture of the belt routing on a different website, which was very helpful. It is attached, hopefully. The picture shows where to feel for the 1/2" hole in the tensioner. Removing the belt from the AC compressor pulley with tension removed is the way to go. I had the belt out in about a minute. Putting it back, 90 minutes! This included scraped fingers and crushed knuckles. One piece of advise I read is to use zip ties on the ratchet or breaker bar to hold the tensioner out of the way as you slip the belt back onto the AC compressor pulley. Having another pair of hands to hold the belt on the power steering pump, idler, alternator and fan, from up top while routing the belt on the crankshaft, water pump, tensioner and AC from the bottom, is a big help. The old belt at 110K looked fine. I checked all bearings and the water pump for play, they were fine. Thank G_d I will not have to do this for another 100K or about 9 years.

 

[Wayne M.]

I've found a way to hold off the tensioner while the belt is dealt with. I use this method to inspect the idlers and such for wear. Use a long handle ratchet and while the tensioner is held off, clamp a curved jaw vise grip to the sway bar to trap the ratchet handle. then you can route the belt.

 

[LHirshman]

If you have a, BD STEERING BOX STABILIZER, installed it occupies the space needed for the vise grip. I used the heavy duty zip ties to hold the ratchet to the fan shroud mounting stud seen in your photo. Also having the,BD STEERING BOX STABILIZER, installed does not help with access either.

 

[Wayne M.]

If you have a, BD STEERING BOX STABILIZER, installed it occupies the space needed for the vise grip. I used the heavy duty zip ties to hold the ratchet to the fan shroud mounting stud seen in your photo. Also having the,BD STEERING BOX STABILIZER, installed does not help with access either.

This could be a problem!

 

[cerberusiam]

There is no problem installing the belt with a steering box stabilizer installed. It is easier without it but not a big problem.

Don't need vice grips or ties or anything else except a long 1/2" breaker bar. Insert breaker bar in the tensioner and remove the tension while slipping the belt off the AC pump.

Remove and install new belt leaving it off the AC pump. Pull tensioner down and slip belt on AC pump, release tensione and remove breaker bar.

 

[DFark]

Had my belt off a few times. Easiest for me was to remove airbox and intercooler/turbo pipe for access. I had been fighting an annoying squeak from a pulley or accessory for some time. Replaced idler pulley, tensioner assembly, belt, and water pump. I don't know what fixed it but it did stop the squeak. Tensioner bearing did have a small noise in the bearing so maybe that was the culprit. Also replaced lower radiator hose while I was in there.