Here we go... Just got looking at the belt and thought, gonna need a new one soon. that was a week ago. So, on the way to a job, lost power steering and brakes, and thought I blew one of the hoses from the pump to the booster, but then saw the battery light on.. Knew right away. Wrestled the truck about 10 blocks to the auto parts store, and of course they only stock the short belt. Guy calls to order the longer belt but missed the truck by 5 minutes, so he tells me about an hour and a half. That gave me time to try and finish some paperwork, and find someone with a breaker bar for the tensioner.

Belt comes in, and I was going to borrow a tensioner from a nearby garage, so I thought I'd get it threaded on as far as I could before i borrowed it, so I didn't have the guys tools for that long. Well, as I had it around all the lower pulleys, I leaned down on it, and my 240lbs got it to compress the tensioner with my body weight, and was able to get the belt on the upper pulleys !!!

Being that I was almost now late for an appointment, I checked to see that it was all lined up, and it looked good except it seemed a little off on the lower altenator. I reasoned the tensioner would adjust the tracking and should be fine. Got on the road, and all good until just before an exit same thing. This time I thought it came off and I would spend a few minutes aligning it right and be on the way. Opened the hood, partially shredded belt, so I am now in panic mode thinking something deep is wrong. Checking things, I see the lower alternator lost the pulley, the same one I was just talking to the Autozone guy about ( under warranty )..

But coming back to my problem, I'm in downtown miami, with no belt, and I start calculating ( nearest auto parts store is 2 miles away, 4 turns... etc ) and I start the truck and drive over. Make it there ok, and I know realize they probably also need to get the longer belt... What to do... ? I need a pulley for the alternator, and a pulley, but I am at Advanced Auto, so I check the serpentine diagram and realize bypassing the second alternator will result in me pulling the belt off the idler above it, so I can use the shorter belt ( for now )

Bolt for the idler is of course stripped.... and i have only some small tools. Plus the clock is ticking and it looks like rain any minute. Bought an adapter for what I did have, but no luck.., And Advanced Auto parts tools suck.... Bought 40 dollars worth of tools including a norton stripped bolt kit, and still cant budge the bolt for the pulley. Forgot to mention half way through, the sky's opened up and we haven't had this much rain in weeks? Under the truck, soaked, greasy, clock is ticking to my next stop. So I test the length of the shorter belt WITH the idler pulley in place. Looks tight, but I lean down on it again and get it to slip on.... !!! I recheck the alignment about 10 times, and pack up my tools.

So far, its still running good, and I will pull the front apart Thanksgiving weekend to remove the alternator. Question is, should I go after the idler pulley bolt, pull the fan and water pump etc to have some room to get at it? Or leave it in place and get to it at some other time.. ? There is also a lot of build up I'd like to get at on the smooth idler pulleys, and that is one of them. No pics, but have a ton from the tie rod replacement in another parking lot with the same tools... Coming later.