OK,I read the article in the technical articles about removing the smog pump on a serpentine belt car.
But he's telling you need a LONGER belt after removing the pump.
Shouldn't it be a SHORTER belt?
I remember someone saying you need a 4 inch shorter belt.
Anyone done this conversion and uses a Gates belt?
Gates is available overhere in The Netherlands,Dayco isn't!
Anyway,what lenght belt do I need after removing the smog pump?
The article says 968K6,originaly is 980K6,right?
So I need a shorter belt or what

 

The belt length in the article is right. You route the belt differently so it is longer actually

Or you do like I did and get rid of the A/C too and have a real short belt just on the drivers side.

 

Yeah if you get rid of your air pump and keep everything else you need a longer belt. This is because you need to re route the belt, I am sure you will see where it needs to go when you try to install the belt. I am running a 980 or 970 K-6 or something like that. I had to trial and error it to find the correct length.

 

my belt actually stayed the same, it depends on what size pulleys your running ,in my case i chcnged the belt when i did the pulleys and when i took off the smog it still worked,you can use a seamstress tape measure to find your length

 

I used a 967K6 belt with no problems.

 

Now I'm realy confused!
The stock belt lenght is 980K6,the article says to use a longer belt,but actualy tells to use a 968K6 (=shorter)belt.
And then you all tell me to use from 967 to 980 which is shorter or at least original lenght.

 

My stock serp belt length was a 940 or 945 K-6. I had a/c, p/s, smog, alt, water pump. No underdrive pullies. Where did you find that the original belt is a 980?

 

what are under drive pullies?

 

Are you kidding?

 

of course not

 

First off, I am sorry if I sounded rude. Underdrive pullys are pulleys for the water pump and alternator and crankshaft that are designed to relieve power robbing drag of accessories. In short they are supposed to free up power. I actually do not know if they work or not. They are readily available from Jeg's Summit, your local speed shop, just about anywhere and are probably one of the easiest engine mods to do. Again I apologize for sounding curt.

BTW how do you do that quoting thing? I can never get it to include the original poster. Thanks.

 

np man. i know im asking noob questions so i can expect that at least you answered me lol...but anyway, so under drive pullies are after market pullies then? sorta like 'high performance' pullies?

 

Click the "quote" button on whoever's message you wanna reply to.

 

There is a good post in the aftermarket product forum right now on this subject, but read carefully, to members were discussing this, and there was some misinformation given. Everyone is straigt now, but if you read quick, you may miss the actuall correct info.

Basically, by changing the size of the pulleys, you can slow down the water pump and alternator, hence not using as much power to drive them. They are being "under" driven. I think it's a waste of money, and so do most people.

 

I was told by someone from the Dutch Gates belt importer that a 980K6(2488centrimeter) was the original lenght for my car.
I think now I'm going to try a 970K6 belt(2463centrimeter),that's the only one I can get overhere that comes close to the 968K6 that is in the article.
Remember,I have to convert all lenghts from inches to centrimetres here,and belts here are sold in centrimetres,makes it a little more difficult as it already is!
Thanks anyway,I'll let you know if it works!

 

Can a belt be ran without A/C, smog pump, and powersteering? If so what belt #? pretty short I imagine.

P.S. sorry for butting in on this thread....

 

no power steering? that would suck

 

Pretty easy with an S-10 box and 15x5's up front. using 205's up front till i get my sportsman fronts, no problems. Looking for a shorter belt running if possible. Didn't know if anyone else has a belt setup like that.

 

Here's the way I routed mine when I removed the AIR pump. I believe I used a 1 inch shorter belt

 

USA1,you're actualy using the stock belt routing,no problems with the belt interfering with the tensioner,as explained in the tech article?

 

Yes, the way it is in the picture I posted is exactly how it sits in the car. The tech article makes no sense to me. It looks like the pictures in the article show a motor with no power steering pump. It looks like he eliminated the pulley on the bottom driver's side of the motor, which, on mine, would be the power steering pump pulley. Once I took off the AIR pump, the belt routing was pretty much common sense. There's no interference with any of the accessories and everything spins as it should. The pic I posted is looking at the front of the motor.

 

thats not the stock way... stock way is using this pattern below. His method works also with the pump in.

 

The top pic in the tech article is the way my car looks now, and the bottom pulley on the driver's side is the power steering pump in my car. Maybe the kid that had the car before me had the belt routed different, but the way the pulleys are in my pic are the way they came on the car. I'll have to look at my radiator shroud and see if that's the way it came stock. Maybe it's different for different years.

 

To clear up some confusion, you can see GM changed the belt routing in 88, then in 89-92:

88 belt routing



89-92 belt routing



*diagrams courtesy of www.sethirdgen.org*

 

USA1racing,
What beltnr. are you excactly using?

 

IROCZZ3,
When I look at the '88 belt routing,it seems to me it would not give any problems on my '88 car, by just delating the smog pump,one can still use the same patern,only a shorter belt is nessecary,right?

 

Yes, the 88 belt routing should give you no problems if you just remove the smog pump. The belt, I believe, is 1 inch shorter, which would make it a 97 inch piece. It sounds like the belt you stated before, Dutch-bird, the 970K6. I'm at school now and my car's at home, so I can't check for sure until Friday. But I'm 80% positive that I used a 97 inch piece

 

Why did GM change, in 1989, the belt routing anyway?

 

USA1racing,
Would you please be so kind and check it on friday and let me know if the 970K6 is the right size?
I have to special order it here and if it's wrong I can't return it!
Thanks!

 

how would you route it without smog and ac?

 

relocate altenator to a/c pump sideto keep tension on it. then again it might rub on the w/pump pulley with the tensioner. you could leave it there and make adjustable brackets to put tension on the belt like the old v-belt system. good luck

 

Yea, I'll take a look when I get home. That's also what I'm doing, is relocating the alternator to the passenger side, low mount. This eliminates the A/C compressor, the smog pump, and the bracket that they both mount on. I've made brackets and an adjustable link to tension the belt. I dont know if anyone would be interested, but after I get some pics, I could write a tech article on it.

 

double post

 

I'll be interested in that article!!!!!!!

 

The length of belt was wrong in the article according to my applicatoin as well. Can't remember which belt I ended up going with though..

 

it will be interesting to see how this works out. i want to put a serpentine setup on my 70 pickup an get rid of the huge a/c pump for the newer smaller ones.

 

How ironic that I see this post today. my belt exploded today on my car. I have no smog pump and used a 960K6 belt and routed it the same way as the 88 beltrouting diagram. my car is a 91z28 350 tpi.

the belt is tight but I can still push it in at least 1/4". should I be using the 970 belt or wilI be ok with 960?

 

I am using a 970 with the same belt routing as you and I think my belt is a little short. I may try a 968 or a 965. I have a 968 at work, but I have not seen a 965, may not exsist. I bet the 960 is okay as long as it allows for movement of the tensioner.

Why did it explode? That is not very typical of serpentine belts.

 

well, as I am putting my new belt on, I go and grab the water pump pulley and its hanging on by 1 bolt and that bolt is almost gonna fallout. somehow, all the bolts that hold the pulley on the pump came loose. one even broke in the hole. so the pulley was most likely wobbleing around and eventually tore the belt up. Luckily the belt broke up while I was sitting at a red light. it scared the **** out of me. I didnt know what was going on. I knew it was the belt when I took off and had no PS and my volts where in the red.
anyway, I never really understood how to read a belt tensioner. what do those marks on it mean?

92, how did you make out with your HSR install? mine is still sitting on the floor here. Im waiting on those 9894 fittings. there back ordered everywhere

 

Did you get them from summit? They have them in stock again but I ordered mine from www.anplumbing.com

 

I am not 100% sure, but I think the marks need to be in the middle. With the 970 belt, and some miles on it, the marks on mine are a little low, thats why I think a slightly shorter belt may work better for me.

I have not yet done the HSR swap. I plan to do it this summer when school is out. No summer class for me!! I want to rebuild my motor with less compression to get it ready for a blower, hopefully by next winter. Good luck with your swap.