Replacing the drive belt

[CChinman]

Need to replace the drive belt. Seems like a fairly easy process except my 2003 3500 has me stumped on how to release the the tension on the belt. Not sure if I loosen the bolt in the tensioner (tried this no success), remove the bolt (seems unlikely) or if I use another type of tool pull on the bolt (tighten motion) to rotate tension arm.



Any guidance is greatly appreciated.

 

[JJPage]

1/2" breaker bar will fit in the tensioner to relieve the tension.

 

[CChinman]

Thank you, so the breaker bar (This is going to sound extremely ignorant) fits in the square opening at the 4 to 5 o'clock position from the bolt head at about 2-3 inches?

 

[rscurtis]

Yes. Do it from under the truck, you can pull on the breaker bar with one hand as you derail the belt with the other. Do the same thing to install it. Loop it over all the pulleys and install it on the AC compresor last. Check the alignment before you start it to make sure you didn't miss a groove.

 

[cerberusiam]

Do yourself a BIG favor and take 2 minutes to remove the air box. It makes changing the belt so much easier. The tensioner pulley has a 1/2 drive hole in it to untension the belt. Unless you have a ratchet that is longer than the standard and shorter than a breaker bar, it sucks from the bottom.

 

[DFark]

Should you replace the tensioner pulley at the same time??

 

[WCPoe]

Should you replace the tensioner pulley at the same time??

I think it's a smart thing to do since they are just plastic with a sealed bearing pressed in. Mine disintegrated when I snapped my tranmission input shaft, (may have been just a coincidence but never the less).



Geno's has the pulley at a great price.



DAYCO 89094 TENSIONER PULLEY ('03-'11) 5. 9L & 6. 7L-Dodge Cummins Diesel Truck Accessories - Geno's Garage

 

[WalterJ]

Do yourself a BIG favor and take 2 minutes to remove the air box. It makes changing the belt so much easier. The tensioner pulley has a 1/2 drive hole in it to untension the belt. Unless you have a ratchet that is longer than the standard and shorter than a breaker bar, it sucks from the bottom.

My terrible under hood squeal was a new (8 month) NAPA Premium Gates belt, that proved to be too hard to run the flat side upon the fan & pump pulleys. No doubt it would last 100K miles, but my old, albeit softer, spare did the trick. It chirped loudly during shutdown; no over-running AC clutch. Alls quiet now. However...

thank goodness I had installed replacement Crank Vibration Damper p/n #ATI-917374, MANUF # 917374, o.d.=7.8", 3 O-Ring shell designed for easy "rebuilding/repair"; smaller than OEM Dia designed to permit changing serpentine belt without removing damper!

...and we found belt could not be removed past the tensioner pulley without loosening it substantially. What up with that? OEM tensioner replaced 2 yrs ago, so only replacements are goofy or OEM's too?

 

[GrantP]

...and we found belt could not be removed past the tensioner pulley without loosening it substantially. What up with that? OEM tensioner replaced 2 yrs ago, so only replacements are goofy or OEM's too?

OEM is goofy too, at least on my 06. I suppose you could fight the belt and try to squeeze it between the block and tensioner pulley but I just removed the tensioner instead. Really a bad design IMO.

 

[MarkEkberg]

I am going to change mine before a trip shortly. I did it a few years ago and was amazed at how difficult it was. This is something you should be able to do on the side of the road, but not so.

 

[ColemanR]

I've done it on the road more then once...long breaker bar or ratchet. Pair of vice grips(Big ones). From under the truck take the tension off the belt clamp the visegrips on the swaybar to hold the breakerbar. Now take the belt off. Release the breaker bar. Take the tensioner off pull the belt put the new one on. Install tensioner use the breaker bar to set the tensioner with visegrips. Route the belt release visegrips check the belt rock and roll. Losted my exaustbrake on my last trip and changed my belt(I carry a short one)in under 30min in the snow.

 

[MarkEkberg]

That's my point. Changing a belt should be a ten min job, not a 30 min job after your good at it.

 

[WalterJ]

Anyone consider "shimming" all the belt driven equipment, forward about 1/4", to increase space betwixt tensioner pulley & block? I didn't measure clearances, just spit balling.