The serpentine belt on my 300 I6 is shot. The dumb thing only lasted for 15K, and it was a Ford replacement. Could someone please recommend a good and quiet belt for this motor? Thanks.

 

Gates or Dayco. Though you may have a bad tensioner or one going bad, even generic belts should last longer. Check and make sure your pullies all line up and check your tensioner

Dave

http://a2ztowing.homestead.com/a2ztowing.html

 

I prefer Gates belts. They seem to have more rubber and last longer. I used to Dayco but only got 1 year out of them before they started to squeal.

 

I'm on another mail list, the C word, and they have good luck with the GOODYEAR GATORBACK belt. I believe it is only sold at Goodyear dealers.

15K miles is awfully short service for a serpentine belt. Most that I have had went at least 60K and usually with only minor signs of wear. You may have just had a bad belt or maybe it wasn't put on right(In the groove and just right tight). Otherwise you do need to check for a squealing or stuck pulley, rough pulley surfaces, anything that might have gotten into the belt path like brackets, wires, junk etc.

Jim Henderson

 

OH BTW, when you change a belt, keep the old one as a spare in your tool box, just in case. It didn't cost you anything and it could save big headaches later.

Jim Henderson

 

I too, am a fan of the Goodyear GatorBack belt. I've had mine for over 20k and it's still quiet. It's the only belt i'll buy now.

 

Yes!, Check the tensioner pulley and the idle pulley, (if it has one). Good luck. Jake.

Jakegypsum // Ford fleet, soup to nuts.

 

Looks like Gates and Goodyear are the favored serpentine belts. How do I decide which one?

Dave, Jake, and others, how do I check the pulleys and tensioner?

Another note, the belt is quiet when sprayed with silicone spray and it is showing an odd wear. About 1/8" of each side of the belt is lighter than the center. Any thoughts?

Thanks for the help.

 

I am not sure on a 6 banger, but in general I push against the belt between two pulleys that are far apart, naturally engine off. If the belt moves much more than say a half inch to an inch I would adjust the tensioner to take out the slack. Most shop manuals will give a specific pressure and amount of deflection but the eyeball meter will get you close. Some cars have a tensioner that has an adjustment screw and a lock screw, others require you to loosen something, usually the alternator and then take out the slack by pushing the alternator along the bracket. Some others have an automatic tensioner that is spring loaded, I like these, just move the tensioner until the belt is in place and then gently let go of the tensioner, it will take care of itself, on my Cword Brand car, I can change a belt in about 10 seconds.

Another possibility is to listen for noise from the bearings in the pulleys and any accessories on the belt. All the bearings should be pretty quiet or if you can hear them at all they might make a "shushing" or "ssss" sound, hard to describe, but in general they should sound "nice". They should not squeal or make any kind of metallic grating or ringing sounds.

I also like to pull the belt off and turn each pulley or accessory by hand. All the bearings should turn smoothly or with just a little resistance. None should make any grinding sounds or squeaks.

While the belt is off take a good look at all the pulleys, they should be smooth and fairly shiney wherever the belt touches.

The lighter edges on the belt may mean nothing or maybe you have a belt that is too wide or are you sure you put the belt on "right side up" and or in the correct path? I have put a belt on the wrong way so I am just pointing out it is easy to goof.

Why are you putting silicone spray on? Is the belt squealing or slipping? Besides improper adjustment of the belt, it might be possible that you have a water leak onto the belt, check the drip hole in the water pump, should be little sign of water, if it is wet you have a problem.

Note that the gatorback belt is often recommended on the other list to eliminate squeal.

Hope this helps,

Jim Henderson

 

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 23-Mar-01 AT 08:53 PM (EST)[/font][p]Russe, Take the belt off and wiggle the tensioner. You should be able to see if there is any unusual play in it. If the bearing was worn, then the pulley will have side slop or a loose feel. It can also make a rough noise and even be a little hard to turn. Normally when the surpentine belt has strange ware on one side it is the tensioner pulley laying over a little thus causing the belt to have side pressure applied to one edge. The tensioner would probably need to be replaced. If the belt is making a chirping noise and you dump water on it while running, the noise will temporarly go away. 90% of the time all it takes is a replacement belt. I have used either Gates or Motocraft brand belts. Hope this is helpful. Jake.

Jakegypsum // Ford fleet, soup to nuts.

 

russe-
i've got the same engine and run a dayco belt on it that i just put on about a month ago. i looked at it today and saw that i had the same gray edge as you. turned out the thing had nearly jumped ship on the power steering pulley. no clue why. must have not aligned it right or something. could be your're in the same boat?