Threw a serpentine belt. Help!!!

[pjku79]

OK, so I have an 05 with a v8. Last Friday, I noticed a loud noise coming from the belt. Instantly I though pulley replacement. Saturday I replaced both the idler and tensioner pulleys. However after completing it, I noticed the tensioner pulley didn't seem to line up right (it was a little forward away from the engine).

This morning on the way to work it threw the belt. The belt itself is not broke, so my assumption is it slipped off of the tensioner pulley. Does this mean the tensioner needs to be replaced? When I was replacing the pulleys I checked the tensioner out as well as all of the other pulleys and everything was spinning freely and the tensioner was tight.

Any help would be great. I have to try to fix this at lunch today so I can make it to pick my son up after work.

 

[phqduphead]

Hope you got it figure out. Only thing I can think is to search YouTube and make sure the belt is routed properly and the pulley is correct.

 

[txclimber]

Do you still have the old pulleys? I recently did mine and noticed the new idler pulley didn't line up with the rest quite right. I opted to just not use it and keep rolling with the old one out of fear of exactly what you're describing happening.

Check closely to see if all of your pulleys are in the same plane.

PS, I'm not too far from SA if you can get it to me, I've got a nice workshop, I'm sure we can get it fixed. Plus, I've got a brand new tensioner in the box that I didn't use either. If you need one, you can have it for what I paid.

 

[pjku79]

OK, so I had a friend that is a moble mechanic come out yesterday since I was tied up with work and had to do something last night. I ordered a new tensioner and belt from o'reilly's. This tensioner came with another new pulley and I figured I couldn't return the one I bought from autozone on Friday, so I just used the new one that came with the tensioner.

After getting it installed, I noticed the pulley was lined up correctly, however there is a slight taper on the pulley. This taper looked to be causing the belt to be further forward at the tensioner.

That being said, today when I was driving to work the belt partially broke. This was a different failure then before (maybe because it was new). This time only one rib broke so then belt was still functioning fine. While I would have expected the broken rib to be at the front (towards the fan), it was the back towards the engine. So, now I am really confused. :dammit:

Where do other's belts line up on the tensioner? Do it look to be more forward then where it is on the AC compressor?

Reminder this is a V8.

 

[nevada]

OK, so I had a friend that is a moble mechanic come out yesterday since I was tied up with work and had to do something last night. I ordered a new tensioner and belt from o'reilly's. This tensioner came with another new pulley and I figured I couldn't return the one I bought from autozone on Friday, so I just used the new one that came with the tensioner.

After getting it installed, I noticed the pulley was lined up correctly, however there is a slight taper on the pulley. This taper looked to be causing the belt to be further forward at the tensioner.

That being said, today when I was driving to work the belt partially broke. This was a different failure then before (maybe because it was new). This time only one rib broke so then belt was still functioning fine. While I would have expected the broken rib to be at the front (towards the fan), it was the back towards the engine. So, now I am really confused. :dammit:

Where do other's belts line up on the tensioner? Do it look to be more forward then where it is on the AC compressor?

Reminder this is a V8.

when a belt strips a rib off like that, its usually because it wasn't on all the pulleys correctly.

 

[pjku79]

So you think everything is fine but it wasn't lined up? I looked at it while it was running and everything looked right. Also it ran for about 40 miles before the rib got stripped.

Does your belt look slightly forward on the tensioner? Can you take a pic?

 

[pjku79]

It is really hard to see, but here is my tensioner with the pulled on it. Keep in mind it is missing a rub toward the engine.

You will notice the flat side of the belt which goes from the ac to the idler above where the tensioner is. At the tensioner the belt is about a rib and a half further forward then where it is between the ac and idler.

I added the black line to designate the tensioner pulley and put a red dot to show where to look to see the suspected misalignment.

 

[pjku79]

Welp, I have some good new and some bad news. The bad new is I am an idiot. The good new is yesterday while messing with it I noticed that the harmonic balancer was loose and causing my belt to pull forward on the tensioner. After I tightened that down, problem solved.

I didn't even think to check that since I haven't touched it. Lesson learned.

:smashputer:

 

[AuSeeker]

Welp, I have some good new and some bad news. The bad new is I am an idiot. The good new is yesterday while messing with it I noticed that the harmonic balancer was loose and causing my belt to pull forward on the tensioner. After I tightened that down, problem solved.

I didn't even think to check that since I haven't touched it. Lesson learned.

:smashputer:

WOW, you're very lucky it didn't come completely loose while the engine was running. it would have caused some serious damage!!

Glad you caught it when you did and all is well now!!