So, jump started the truck today, got it running, left the hood up, came back and noticed black dots all over the front quarter panels in line with the belt. took it for a ride to warm it up, as i live in New England and not a mile down the road the belt gives out, shredded to ****. The week before i put a new idler pulley on and no problem til this. I noticed grease around the vacuum pulley, well im pretty sure thats the pulley, its the one right above the powersteering pulley and below where the A/C would be. Im basically stuck here wondering if i should put another belt on there and hope it doesnt shred, or start replacing parts. Any insight would be greatly appreciated

 

How old was the belt?
Are all the pulleys rotating easily? Are they all in line with each other? Front to rear. The PS pulley can be intalled to deep or too shallow causing misalignment. Sometimes the pulleys can become too smooth allowing the belt to slip just enough to wear the belt prematurely. Steelwool or Scoth brite the smooth pulleys. (Non-ribbed)

The alternator, vacuum pump or AC pump could be siezing up.

 

from what i could see they are in line with each other, all pulleys are moving freely like they should with the exception of the vac pulley, im not sure how free that one should be, it turns a little then gets tension and then turns more, I assume thats how that one works, but not too sure. Im not sure how old the belt is, i bought the truck about 4 months ago and havnt changed it until now. after i replaced the idler pulley i put the same belt back on, i didnt check it to see if it ripped, the belt remained on all pulleys but the idler because the bushing wore out and just lost tension.

 

I roasted a belt about 3 months ago. My problem was the water pump - it totally seized and burnt through the belt and made a gi-normous knot around the crank pulley. If I wasn't so pi55ed it would have been funny. I got to use my new knife though, so I guess it wasn't that bad.

 

need to change either the vacuum pump, or just the vacuum pump pulley. Any idea on how do do either of these? I havnt taken a good look at it yet, too damn cold to do anything up here and snow is finally coming this week.
Thanks

 

There's a thread written just today on the subject. A little search will turn up a lot of info. Seems to be something common... I'm in the middle of a change-out of that same part as well as many other things even as we speak.

You'll get 'er done.

Dan

 

Thanks for all the help. Took the vacuum pump off and removed the pulley, noticed that the seal was broken and the bearings were almost all missing, and grease everywhere. Changed the Vacuum pump and everything is working fine... *knock on wood*

 

same exact thing happed to me weds. the bearings in it were toast. easy swap though. . .