94 dodge caravan serpentine belt

[HeWhoKillz]

I have a 94 dodge caravan 3.3 automatic. The belt is serpentine. The belt squeaks like the tensioner is bad. The belt has also derailed last saturday and today. I put it back on today and drove it and somehow, half of the belt shredded. It still runs but the belt is down to 50%. My assumption is that there is a pulley that is bent or loose? I bought a tensioner thinking if I replace this then the belt will stop squeaking but if the belt is tracking off so bad that it has sheered part of the belt off, how do I know which pulley it is? There is only seven of them. haha.

[vgames33]

Remove the belt and see if any pulley wobbles or is hard to turn. If you don't find anything, there is an upgraded tensioner available with a double sided belt to solve the belt tossing issue.

[shorod]

Are you absolutely positive when you installed the belt this last time that you had it positioned correctly on every pulley? And then once you were sure you did, did you check again? If you have the belt off just one groove of a grooved pulley it will shred like you describe.

As for the original issue of the belt slipping off, this is actually a rather common issue on the Chrysler minivans. Gates, and probably others, even make a kit that adds some grooved pulleys to eliminate the belt slipping off. From my recall though, the belts coming off were typically due to driving through large puddles or sliding in to a snow bank, anything that would cause the belts to get wet.

Did you maybe use some belt dressing to try to quiet the belts down which might have actually helped the belt slip off?

-Rod