My son just bought a 1988 F150 with the I6 and a manual trans. No A/C.

He had a serpentine belt shred and come off on the way home on Christmas Eve (great timing). I picked up a new one at NAPA and dropped it off to him today.

He called and he's having a problem getting the belt on. He says the tensioner pulley doesn't seem to have enough travel to let him put the new belt on.

Of course, this is being done outside, in the cold at his place and this is his only transportation. Topping things off, I'm going in for a medical procedure tomorrow and I can't help him out.

He's pretty good with a wrench and I believe he has it on right. I'm pretty sure it's the right belt, 97 5/8" long. The old belt measures up the same as the new belt.

He's stumped and I can't do anything from here.

Any ideas that I can suggest to him?

 

all i can come up with is maybe a piece of the old belt (or some other foreign matter) stuck in one of the pulley grooves.

 

Just got a message that he got it on. A friend stopped by and the second set of hands and some swearing got the job done.

 

Sorry no one got back to you earlier. The first time I put a belt on my '96 I6, I needed a helper. A carefully placed screwdriver can help guide a belt onto pulleys, too.

 

Following up on this....

All was good... for a little while. On the way home from work, he said the belt started squealing loud and broke. At least he was just down the road from his house and he got it home without any issue.

So much for the new NAPA belt.

A quick inspection showed that the smog pump seized. It might have been the issue on his first belt, I'm not sure. I don't think the pump was seized then, but I don't think he checked it either. He should have known better.

So.... We did some research and came up with suggested belt sizes of 80 1/8 to 80 5/8" if we bypassed the pump. The local NAPA had a 80 3/8" on the shelf and that fit perfectly. $10 cheaper than the first belt too!

The good news is we could leave the old pump bolted on. Since we were getting more snow and wind, not having to remove the pump while working outside was a real bonus.