I was at work today, stopped off at a parts house, and left my truck running while I ran in so it would stay cool, it was only 110* today here, less then 5 minutes inside, i hear a screech noise for like half a second and look outside and see what looks like a wire under the front of my truck. I pop open the door and see the battery light on, I shut it off and popped the hood, the fan belt is shredded, I start looking around to see what caused it. All the pulleys spun freely, I then noticed the tensioner pulley is sitting slightly out of line. I touch it and it FALLS APART!
I got out my tools and pulled the bolt and the remaining piece off. I go back inside to try and find a Napa anywhere nearby. I found one and got the parts guy to run me over there. 121 bucks later I am back with a belt, tensioner, and a gallon of antifreeze.
I had a heck of a time lining up the new tensioner with the holes, it could be because the sweat was running off me faster then I could wipe it out of my eyes, but I got it back on, pulled the top radiator hose off and looped the belt on, put the belt on the pulleys according to the diagram on the core support, everything looks good till I realize I have about 6 inches too much belt. WHAT????? 20 minutes go by while I call the Napa store back and give him crap for giving me the wrong belt. He ends up telling me that there is another one there that is only 3 inches shorter I could use... I pull the new one back off, and call my mechanic up. He says is the old one broke or can you take it with you to get the right one? Oh hey there is about a 1/4 inch of it left that had not completely come apart. I stretched them out next to each other, hmm, they are EXACTLY THE SAME. what the heck? I put the belt back on, hmm still to long, check the path, yup looks good, I put the 1/2 ratchet on the tensioner to move it... oh crap, I had it ran the wrong way on the tensioner... I pull the belt off the top idler pulley, run the belt the right way through the tensioner, reef on the ratchet to get enough slack to slip the belt back over the idler. Man do I feel like a jackass. I am willing to bet that the next time I have to do the belt, I can cut about 2 hours out of the process. I am just glad that it happened when it did and not out on the highway.

 

Sounds like you had one fun day! Go back to napa and pickup an upper radiator hose for a dual alternator setup, should be #9066. That belt goes around the belt rather then through it. Why some idiot decided to put one through it is beyond me, but it will make things so much easier if this happens again.

 

LOL... Sounds like fun.

I have lost two tensioners over the years, one I was able to wedge back into place for the remaining trip home (few miles)...

The other one came apart up in the mountians while I was pulling about 14k on the trailer. No brakes, No power steering, and coolant all over the windsheild... yup, that one was fun.

 

Had the top idler pulley go out and shrewd the belt in Tennessee once, only problem was I lived in Georgia. I view my truck as a trooper though because it pulled the trailer and me another 8 miles to the nearest parts house with a 3/8 wide piece of the belt left and while the idler pulley was gone, it was just rubbing over the bolt. I was happy it didn't leave me on the highway.

Nsaan, next time buy the replacement hose that goes around the belt and you will not have to worry about loosing antifreeze. $15 worth while to spend.

 

I've changed mine a few times and EVERY time I do, I end up with that belt that is six inches too long ...I refuse to look at the diagram, it is my equivalent of Click & Clack's Puzzler. So, like every old guy I remember as a kid, I futz around with it until I get it right. As soon as I read your "everything looks good till I realize I have about 6 inches too much belt?????" I started laughing...Oh and carry a belt if you travel much in the sticks...

 

I was surprised when I took the top hose off not much antifreeze came out, the degauss bottle was a tad low before, but still had about 4 inches in the bottom of it. I know that because I tried to take it off to get access to the tensioner. I did not realize it had the larger hose in the bottom of it. I was like how the hell do you ever get the radiator full, learned that yesterday too. I would have pulled it off still but some jack hole put the clamp on so you didn't have access to it.
After I had it all buttoned back up I filled up the degauss bottle, it took about half a gallon.
You would think that they would put the dang sticker for the belt routing right in the middle so you could look at it and put on belt at the same time, rather then look at it put on part of it, let go of it, look back at the sticker, go back and put the belt back on that just fell off and go to the next pulley, etc... ya it was fun standing on top a 5 gallon bucket so you could see what your doing too. Oh well should be good for a while now.