Hello again,

Still working on the 1985 e-350, 6.9 IDI.

I've got my new fuel pump, brake booster and master cylinders ordered! Thanks fellas. I also ordered an E-350 electric and vacuum manual to clear up my parasitic draw. I will PDF this and post it for everyone soon.

Today, I am trying to pull the alternator, and I realize that I have no idea how to pull off a V-belt. I have never worked on a vehicle with no tensioner.

I have searched high and low for a tutorial, but can't find one. I am willing to put a video together, if someone will give me the step by step.

So far in my research, I have found that wobbling is normal. That I am supposed to loosen the alternator. That I have to wrap the belt around each fan blade to get it to the water pump.

How do I do this? What about the power-steering belt? Can I use a stretch belt removal tool, or should I actually just loosen up the alternator? Common mistakes to avoid?

I figured I would change out all the belts for good measure, just don't want to start pulling on stuff before I know how to put it back together. Call me a coward.

Thanks again,

-hj

 

You will have to pull the belts off in order(front to back, alternator last)) and then reinstall them in reverse order(alternator first).
You loosen the bolts holding the accessory in place, move it such that you get slack. Then just pull the belt free.
When reinstalling, you'll need to put a lever on the accessory to put some tension on it; some things like the PS pump and factory AC have a 1/2 square hole for putting a breaker bar in; the alternator doesn't, but you can use a crescent wrench on the upper tab. Or put a crow bar on the side and lever against it.

 

As stated by Macrobb- each belt will drive an accessory item and those accessories will have a bolt that you must loosen and rotate the accessory in towards the center of the engine to create slack in the belt to remove it.
Some belts loop from the crankshaft pulley to the water pump pulley and then the accessory.
Some belts loop only from the crankshaft to the accessory.
On my '89 F350 7.3L the belt for the vacuum pump connects only to the alternator. You must loosen the bolt on the vacuum pump and it has a square hole in it to use a ratchet to rotate it to loosen the belt. Remove the belt then loosen the alternator and rotate it to loosen the belt that drives it from the crankshaft.

"That I have to wrap the belt around each fan blade to get it to the water pump. How do I do this?"

Once the belt is freed from all of the pulleys and you find that it is too small in diameter to fit across the fan pull the belt up against the bottom of the fan hub and you will find that it will fit over one blade of the fan. Pull one side of the belt over one blade and let that side of the loop drop down between the 2 blades. Now you will have enough slack to get the other side of the loop across the adjoining blade. Once you get the belt across 3 blades you should have enough slack to get the rest of the belt across the fan.

I have never heard of a "stretch belt tool" but you are not going to stretch a V-belt. They are not rubber bands and are in no way designed to stretch.

 

Just to add in you mite have to loosen the pivot bolt too to allow the accessory to move like the alternator, if you just loosen the top bolt it may not move or very easily.

 

The other guys are right on track but this is key, too. Gotta loosen BOTH the adjusting bolt and pivot bolt.

Also, buy QUALITY belts. I suggest Gator/Goodyear belts. They seem to be top of the line for durability these days. Went through a bunch of NAPA belts for the alternator before getting one or these.

 

I'm in the middle of doing this on my 91 e350. I liked the idea of not having a tensioner, now, not so much. Got all of em off relatively easy, the pivot and slide bolts are easy to identify, but i had such a hard time trying to get the first belt back on to the alt and VP that I had to actually take out the mounting bolt to lower the alt a little more, stick the belt on then crank it back into place. Only thing is now I'm having a hell of a time yanking the alt around trying to line up the bolt to get it back in. Should have known that would happen of course, but couldn't seem to get that darn belt on any other way. Hope you had better luck with it!

 

I checked the Alternator Belt # that is on my 86 6.9
9570 Gates Green Stripe XL 13A1450

Do you have the right belt length for your application?

I understand you removed the long mounting bolt for the Alternator?
Good luck getting it back in holding that heavy awkward Alt, and with
the wires connected and a stiff new belt.

When you loosen the adjusting bolt, push the Alt towards the engine.
Make sure something like heater hose, wire cable etc... isn`t keeping
from moving all the way.
Leave the vacuum Pump belt off. There is a pivot bolt and the adjuster
bolt on the Pump Bracket.

The Alternator doesn`t have anything to adjust the tension on the belt
except to stick a bar between the Alt and engine.
Even when fully adjusted, one side will flop, I think it is the lower side.

I changed my Lift Pump a couple weeks ago and didn`t get it adjusted
correctly, starting to squeel, and the top side is flopping.
OH Fun.


Charlie

 

My brain must have been off when I posted I meant to say it was the belt from the alt, WP, & CS was the one I fighting to get on. The alt and VP was easy since the VP has so much play to move when loosened.

When I took all the old belts off i sized them up to the new ones and they looked right. I didnt get exact with it, but it seemed they were the right size, lol. Perhaps I should have been more meticulous.

I was worried about running into the issue your having as well, not getting everything lined up 100%. What a headache.

Got the alternator lined up & back on there, like you mentioned, used a pry bar (and an extra set of hands,) and also fought with the heater hose.

But I've seemed to run into a new problem. I had my boyfriend crank the PS pump back up into place before I tightened down the "slider" and pivot bolts & they just keep going round and round and never seem to fully tighten.

It's easy to see that both my AC and PS are crocked. I had him help me get the AC as straight as possible before tightening it down but the belt got nice and tight before it could sit straight "up and down." And same with PS, I had him crank it up, I tighten and round and round the bolts go like they're not threading into anything or that its striped? and when he let's go of the breaker bar the PS lops over the right a little, enough to visually see that the reservoir is sitting at an angle.

I only had them loosened just enough to pivot the PS, so I cant imagine they'd be fully out of where they thread into, I didnt pull em out that far at all.

I thought maybe they had nuts on the back, I checked under to truck to see if i lost em, nothing there. This truck is succeeding at making me feel like an idiot lol.

 

Just had to man handle the hell outta everything, still not quite straight, but runs just fine.

 

Thanks for the follow up, good to hear you mastered it.
Still haven`t got back into mine to redo the Alt belt.

Now onto some happy trouble free miles.
Keep on truckin....er vannin.


Charlie