Installing Serpentine Belt

[LarsBars]

Have to put on a new belt. Old one shredded for my wife. Car is being towed to house. Went to Autozone got a belt and serpenine belt tool. Also got the diagram for the belt. Besides the tensioner will I have to loosen anything else? What are the common mistakes?

Aurora '96 4.0L V8

[Indy8]

Don't have to take anything apart, just relieve tension with a .5" square tool inserted into the recessed area in the tensioner and pull down towards the front of the car. Slide belt off the top of the power steering pulley and remove. Route the new one and repeat the above to get over the top of the pulley again and you're done.

[apollo7879]

Right, It is difficult to snake that belt under & over everything, but it can be done without removing anything. Good luck, hope you have a warm garage!

[BigRedAurora]

how about the water pump belt.has anyone replaced the WP BELT ? what's the procedure and how difficult ?

[Smoothe LJ]

Originally Posted by BigRedAurora

how about the water pump belt.has anyone replaced the WP BELT ? what's the procedure and how difficult ?

It's so easy once u change it u'll say wtf. jus take off the belt cover and use a racket to relieve the tension and it comes right off. then slide another on and release the tensioner. thats it

[LarsBars]

Originally Posted by Smoothe LJ

It's so easy once u change it u'll say wtf. jus take off the belt cover and use a racket to relieve the tension and it comes right off. then slide another on and release the tensioner. thats it

Well I got it done. Not as easy as that, but still pretty easy.

I have the '97 4.0L V8. There is no Belt cover. Had to remove the right side wheel well/undercarriage splash guard. This gave me access to the alternator and pulley. Had to twist the belt sideways several times arount bolt to the engine mount and brackets. Took me about 30-45 minutes. But got it on and saved about 200 bucks. Used www.alldatadiy.com, it gave me great diagrams on how to feed through the very tight spaces (less than 1/2 inch of clearance) and very good step by step instructions. Worth the investments. I have already been researching other general maintenance and repairs I will do next.

(EDITED TO FIX THE LINK) Sorry if any tried it before.

[LarsBars]

Originally Posted by BigRedAurora

how about the water pump belt.has anyone replaced the WP BELT ? what's the procedure and how difficult ?

Change that one too. Very simple. It is on the passenger side of the engine, above transmission. Very easy to get to, it is right on top of the engine under a plastic cover. Very straight forward.

[apollo7879]

Smoothe was describing water pump belt! Which he said was real easy.

Sounds like I'm not the only one that had to work & swear a lot to get that Alternator belt on.

[LarsBars]

Originally Posted by apollo7879

Smoothe was describing water pump belt! Which he said was real easy.

Sounds like I'm not the only one that had to work & swear a lot to get that Alternator belt on.

Really was not very very hard. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being most difficult I would rank it a 6. And like I said earlier, the info from alldatadiy.com was very helpful.