hey, i needed to remove my serpentine belt to get my hands in there to replace the heater hose off of the water pump. when i was finished up i went to put the belt back on it was almost like the belt had shrunk a good 2 inches. i measured it and it was 86 and 3/4 inches long. i checked a couple parts web sites and that is the longest belt available. did i do something wrong when i removed the belt? i thought i followed the instructions listed in the manual.

 

You have to loosen the tensioner pulley to get the belt back on. I have slipped the belt on on a couple of occasions on the side of the road but just loosen the tensioner pulley to get it back on.

 

Put a 15mm wrench on the bolt in the center of the tensioner pulley. Turn it counter-clockwise and it's spring loaded, slip the belt on and release.

 

yeah i did the whole 15mm wrench thing and it still seems the belt is too small even with pulley completely turned counter clock wise.

 

Are you sure you didn't wrap it the wrong way around the crank pulley/water pump? It can go either direction around them. If you are still having trouble, I will dig up some pics...

 

Funny that, I replaced my belt a while back and it came off easy. Then I needed to move the alternator to get to the number 1 sparkplug and couldn’t shift the belt even with the tensioner at maximum slackness. Fast forward a few weeks and it came off with no probs! Go figure!!

 

my camera broke a few weeks back so i couldn't take a pic of the belt route. my water pump was the only accessory that spun in a counter clockwise rotation. i might be mistaken though.

 

thank you firstfirebird i went out and swapped it around and it worked perfectly. problem solved. now just need a new camera to avoid these problems in the future.