Belt Failure

[jelag]

OK I give up... just pulled into the driveway after 1800 mile trip and hear this noise and find part of the serpentine belt lying on the ground behind the truck... I've now got the belt off. . A NAPA belt I had installed with a new idler/tensioner about 10-12K ago. . At the time there was nothing wrong it was done purely as a maintenance item... The belt is shredded on one edge and about 1/4 - 5/16 of the belt is missing... actually wrapped around the AC pump, and Alt. but I've got it all out and as I turn all the pulley's I find nothing that seems out of place to me... nor miss aligned or do I feel a worn bearing in any of the drives or water pump. .

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this... and suggestions... I'm guessing the best way is to install a new belt and now listen to each bearing with a stethoscope and see if something is wrong under tension.

Thanks for the input. .

Shucks, forgot the most important part... . anyone have a copy of the path of this belt around all the pulley's that they can post. . It's not under the hood... for the truck listed below...

 

[Prairie Dog]

Jim, check your water pump for slop. Seems like over the years people have had the edge of belts fray when the pump is going south.

 

[BGlidewell]

https://www.turbodieselregister.com...lt-schematic&p=2125624&viewfull=1#post2125624



this is a link to the belt schematic. (You've posted this in the no engine forum)

 

[jelag]

prairie dog... If I grab the pulley and spin it... it feels free and smooth, and I can't move it side to side... I've never had to put a water pump on the other trucks I've owned and now sold... usually go the life of my use... usually over 450K miles when I trade...

B Glidewell, perfect, thanks. . all I need to do is decide the cause before I put the new belt on...

Thanks guys...

 

[Gonzo 1066]

I freely admit that I am a bit anal with my truck. I just finished installing a new Water pump, fan bearing, fan clutch assy. , alternater, idler pulley and tensioner. I figured this truck has been paid for for 6 years, has had NO breakdowns. I may as well replace everything with a bearing on the front of the engine. Cost me most of $800 and now I should have piece of mind that at least those parts are new. . Oh yes the truck only has 130,000 miles on it, all of them towing HARD.

 

[Tumbleweed]

jelag... ... . I have a 04 3500 ctd, a couple of years i was having a new water pump installed at a Dodge dealer. ( was not at home so could not do it myself ) They noticed the belt was just starting to fray, but not due to the pump. They said it was due to the alternator pulley. There was an updated pulley which they installed and no trouble since. Can't recall if they told me at the time or i read about it later but the new style (upgraded ) pulley cannot be easily removed ( with simple tools ) Might be something to check out.

Your breakdown in your driveway was excellant timming... ... ..... ED

 

[seafish]

It's called an overrunning pulley for the alternator... supposed to help eliminate belt squeal on shutdown.

Basically though you need to chech each and every pulley that the belt runs around to find the culprit that is causing the belt to run out of true... could be any one of them, except of course the crankshaft... Though now that I think about it I'd venture that a harmonic balancer going bad just might contribute to the problem. In any case, roughness or excessive play and noise

are what you are looking for.

 

[NIsaacs]

I know you changed the belt tensioner but that is usually the problem with alignment. I would check it again, they are not all created equal. If you have the Dayco with the plastic pulley, I would change it out with the heavy duty one, it has a heavy steel housing (not aluminum/pot metal) and steel pulley.



Nick

 

[BGlidewell]

FYI: my WP failed @ 60K... but it was leaking coolant as well. I've seen foreign objects get in-between belts and cause havoc...

 

[BGlidewell]

It's called an overrunning pulley for the alternator... supposed to help eliminate belt squeal on shutdown.
Basically though you need to chech each and every pulley that the belt runs around to find the culprit that is causing the belt to run out of true... could be any one of them, except of course the crankshaft... Though now that I think about it I'd venture that a harmonic balancer going bad just might contribute to the problem. In any case, roughness or excessive play and noise
are what you are looking for.

I thought the pulley was a non-service and required a new alternator???? Maybe I'm thinking AC.

 

[JJPage]

My OEM belt had the forward rib shredded off and wrapped around the fan shaft. I could not find anything amiss with any drive components or alignment, I installed a new Goodyear Gatorback belt and no issues since.

 

[rashwor]

Everytime I have had this issue on any of my dodges, it has been the tensioner arm going bad. I have got to the point where I change them and the serp belt at about 100k as PM and I haven't had any issues since doing this. I may be throwing out good tensioner arms / belts, but better than being stranded in the road. Just my 0. 02

 

[SRay]

Nisaacs: yeah, those dayco tenioners should not be on the market. I replaced one that someone else installed on my friend's 2003. It broke off and shredded the belt. Then when I got a new one, I noticed right away the tensioner arm is much beefier and heavy duty (I forget the name of it).

 

[Prairie Dog]

I recently replaced my OEM tensioner (81K) with another one from Cummins and was surprised how much stiffer the new one was.

 

[seafish]

I thought the pulley was a non-service and required a new alternator???? Maybe I'm thinking AC.

Pretty sure that they ONLY replaced the pulley on the alternator. I am back home now, so I'll go back over the service records and try to see for sure.

 

[Mark31]

Jelag, my 88 S15 GMC serpentine belt was doing some chirping sometimes and was cracking prematurely. To save a long story, we finally found the culprit: The power steering pulley was coming apart. I have no idea if Dodge/GM use the same design pulley, but, if you run out of things to check and don't find it, you might consider a close pulley inspection. Mark

 

[seafish]

Yup... Mopar Part#5183490AA is an updated alternator pulley kit which they installed on my 2005 truck that addresses the problem of the alternator contributing to serp belt squeel, AS WELL AS the serp belt jumping a groove!!! There was actually a TSB on it, but I cannot find the number right now.

 

[BLoging]

i was told that the the serpenten belt should be changed every 40,000 mile's with the o. e. belt.

the power steering pump is the the hardest thing on the belt, and that is why it has one of the shortest life span.

 

[llotton]

i was told that the the serpenten belt should be changed every 40,000 mile's with the o. e. belt.



the power steering pump is the the hardest thing on the belt, and that is why it has one of the shortest life span.

The TSB your looking for is 09-004-06 which is to cure a Chirp on shutdown and the fix is a overrunning alt. pully. At least that was on my 2003

 

[Grizzly]

I carry an OEM spare and will replace it when it goes out, unless i see signs that it's about to go out.

I had over 100K on my 95 Dodge and never needed to use my OEM replacement spare. I did however gave it to the buyer along with the shop manual.