Nothing lasts forever, and I assume the serpentine belt on my 5.4L V8 engine must be changed long before my engine goes to the junkyard. I've got a '98 Chateau Club Wagon, 1/2 ton. Any advice on changing this belt would be appreciated. I have 75K miles on the vehicle now.

Is the camshaft synchronized to the main shaft through other means? Phenolic gear, perhaps? I haven't scrutinized the devices connected by this belt. Is there any positional synchronization requirement? I would certainly expect not.

This belt must be very difficult to change. But, then again, EVERYTHING in my van is difficult to change. Should I change my water pump, proactively, when I change my serpentine belt? How about my alternator? Power steering pump? Anything else in there that lasts about as long as a serpentine belt?

Has anyone had this belt break? How many miles were on the belt?
Thanks!

 

It is an interesting question, my van is 13 years old and I am about to put the third belt on it as belts are cheap, and hoses are cheap if done proactively compared to getting stranded. I also keep an extra belt in the van, but not likely that I would be able to change it myself on the side of the road, but I will have one if I am in some distant place that has to spend a lot of time locating the proper belt. Never had one break though. tree

 

109K on the V10, no belt or hose changes to date.

 

JohnPeter
The serpentine belt is just an accessory drive and is not related to cams

 

change within 100,000 miles unless it shows signs of cracking, even on the ribbing.

 

I'd say long before it ever looks like this one,
https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...oid=56158&.jpg
This was on a 1997 E350 5.4 I think it was around 140,000 miles at the time but it was a while ago so I can't say for sure. We got this one used around 30,000 miles on it.

 

If you are worried about it breaking. Replace it. Cheap insurance.

 

That's my thinking. I'd rather replace it pro-actively on a nice warm sunny day. Mine had some cracking on the ribbing after about 60K so I replaced it while I had the air-cleaner assembly off for some other stuff. The difference in the tensioner position made it obvious how worn/stretched the belt really was.

 

I think time is as important as milage, if I had waited to have 100,000 miles on mine would be 26 year old belt. Tree, with 92 Chateau with 50,000 miles on it.

 

As I often say to my wife Lady Kath, I LIKE working on a vehicle when I WANT to but hate it when I HAVE to!! LOL.

 

John Peter,

Take a look at the idler pulley and tensioned pulley while you are at it. Mine is an older 5.8 so it isn't going to be just like your 5.4, but mine had plastic pulleys in these two locations. Both were looking pretty bad with 90,000 miles.

Oddly, the replacements I bought were made by AC Delco, who make a lot of replacement parts for Ford, and were nicer steel units than the originals. More cheap insurance.

There is a routing diagram for the belt on a sticker on the radiator support, but take a good long look at the original before you take it off. You can do the job by yourself, but if you have a buddy to hold the spring tension on the tensioner while you put that last leg of the belt on, it can be very helpful.

Gene

 

The serpentine belt links the accessories- water pump, alternator, a/c, smog pump, etc. It does not sync up the cam, that is the timing chain.

Serp belt failure will of course make the engine unusable immediately since the water pump is offline. IMHO you should just always carry a spare, they usually last a long time but sometimes even new ones may not last so long. They are easy to change. Hint- the hex head on the tensioner is the same size as the wheel lugs, at least this is true for the 302, so you may be able to use the same tool if it is shaped right.

The timing chain requires extensive disassembly of the front of the engine, it is rather complicated and expensive especially on a van. Slippage or breakage of the timing chain will stop the engine since syncs the valves as well as ignition timing and rotor position. To test the tension on the timing chain without disassembly, remove the fan shroud, fan, take off the serpentine belt, take off the distributor cap, put a socket on the large bolt on the end of the crankshaft's harmonic balancer bolt, and rock the crankshaft back and forth through that bolt. Watch the rotor. Any slack in the chain will show up as slack between crank movement and rotor movement. This is a sign of the need to replace the timing chain. Most wear will show up as slack.