Serpentine Failure

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_Rusty_

_Rusty_

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 19, 2017
Posts
229
Location
Pennsyltucky
Just a story about my weekend adventure. Left a country campground Tuesday last, and heard a loud report under the hood. Immediate power steering loss and battery warnings on the dash told me "broken belt". We stopped, broke the TOAD loose and got the RV off the road. I've never changed one, and decided local road assistance might be best. So we set out the flags and drove down the road a piece to a known heavy tow and repair shop. The owner was just pulling out and said all of his crew were out on calls as well. He gave me his cell and told me of another shop 5 miles down the road. Off we go! That guys truck was out as well and he couldn't leave the shop, but he had a young mechanic he could send in a half hour. Back to the rig and put it up in the air for convenience of the mechanic (who never showed). While waiting I took the doghouse apart and got the spare belt out. Still waiting I got the maintenance book out... how hard can this be? So under I went, with a Pic on the phone of the routing. Sent mechanic a text. Started routing new belt. Had it almost in, called mechanic.. no answer.. left a detailed msg (I don't answer strange numbers either). Now it's the tensioner assy. Worked and worked on getting it in place and finally got it ( I thought ). 25 miles to home, sent another text and phone message I was good and away we go...

Next day I was re-evaluating my repair job and prepping for an antifreeze change when I discovered tension arm roller bearing in pieces (possibly the original fail point). Found one local and replaced but... couldn't get the belt back on. Fought with it for hours and decided to compare it to identical belt I just bought to replace it... found my newest belt was 1 inch longer than the spare I carried for years. Same package, same part no., 1 inch longer... wow was I mad..

Long story I know, but happy ending. Moral of the story, carry spares and the tools to put them on.
 
Good story (except for the non service you received) and a reminder for me. A broken serperntine belt will shut you down. I don’t carry a spare, but i will now. Thanks for the reminder.
 
_Rusty_ said:
Just a story about my weekend adventure. Left a country campground Tuesday last, and heard a loud report under the hood. Immediate power steering loss and battery warnings on the dash told me "broken belt". We stopped, broke the TOAD loose and got the RV off the road. I've never changed one, and decided local road assistance might be best. So we set out the flags and drove down the road a piece to a known heavy tow and repair shop. The owner was just pulling out and said all of his crew were out on calls as well. He gave me his cell and told me of another shop 5 miles down the road. Off we go! That guys truck was out as well and he couldn't leave the shop, but he had a young mechanic he could send in a half hour. Back to the rig and put it up in the air for convenience of the mechanic (who never showed). While waiting I took the doghouse apart and got the spare belt out. Still waiting I got the maintenance book out... how hard can this be? So under I went, with a Pic on the phone of the routing. Sent mechanic a text. Started routing new belt. Had it almost in, called mechanic.. no answer.. left a detailed msg (I don't answer strange numbers either). Now it's the tensioner assy. Worked and worked on getting it in place and finally got it ( I thought ). 25 miles to home, sent another text and phone message I was good and away we go...

Next day I was re-evaluating my repair job and prepping for an antifreeze change when I discovered tension arm roller bearing in pieces (possibly the original fail point). Found one local and replaced but... couldn't get the belt back on. Fought with it for hours and decided to compare it to identical belt I just bought to replace it... found my newest belt was 1 inch longer than the spare I carried for years. Same package, same part no., 1 inch longer... wow was I mad..

Long story I know, but happy ending. Moral of the story, carry spares and the tools to put them on.
Click to expand...
Thar is the unfortunate result of what I assume is a cheaper method of designing engine belt...lose one and lose it all. When driving a 1980's minivan for Ohio to NJ, the AC compressor seized in early Sunday evening in PA. Lots of smoke as the belt was trying to move the compressor. Pulled over, cut the belt off and finished the trip
 
On my Workhorse the serp belt splie. LENGTHWISE and 1/2 then broke and got all wrapped up in things.. I spent a good hour or two cutting the broken half out.. Found a service shop to put the new one in. took 'me less than 30 minutes (Well they had the facility for the job) Alas they went out of business.

On my care had multiple belts.. one broke, lost A/C and Power Steering. but Alternator kept running.. Turns out it was the idler that was bad.
 
With serpentine belts, the belts normally last longer than the belt tensioner. The newer serpentine belts should last longer than 100,000 miles. Perhaps 90,000 for the tensioner.

So carry both. Replace both when either fails.

-Don- Reno, NV
 
DonTom said:
With serpentine belts, the belts normally last longer than the belt tensioner. The newer serpentine belts should last longer than 100,000 miles. Perhaps 90,000 for the tensioner.

So carry both. Replace both when either fails.

-Don- Reno, NV
Click to expand...
Yep, both Cummins and Gates state to always replace the tensioner when replacing a belt.
 
If you have any say in the matter, get a Litens tensioner as they were the original inventor of them. Advance Auto Parts had the Litens tensioner for my Cummins. The Litens tensioner has a metal pulley on it while the one I removed (I think it was the original one) had a plastic pulley.

For a belt I went with a Gates FleetRunner belt. The one for my Cummins was $115 over a year ago, and they were in short supply and I have to drive to an O'Reilly's 50 miles away to get the only one left in the entire O'Reilly system.

If you blow the Serpentine belt for no apparent reason, check to see if your engine has either an Over Running Clutch or a Decoupler pulley. If these sieze up, they will cause a belt to fail prematurely, and will wear out the tensioner also.

 
A couple of years back heading home from Lake Placid, NY on I90 all my dash lights flashed on and off a couple of times. I thought it was a glitch. When we got home I needed to move the rig and it wouldn't start. Eventually called my local shop who sent their mobile mechanic out. After an hour of going over things, he noticed my serpentine belt was torn apart and hanging. He said the AC compressor froze and that ripped apart the belt after a while. But that's not why my rig wouldn't start.

Anyway, I had the rig towed to their shop less than 5 miles away, Good Sam Road Service is another story. The shop found the belt I needed in Flagstaff, AZ, and said it was the last one in the country! They had it FedExed overnight and in a couple of days had me back on the road with a new belt and compressor.

I hear the OP saying to carry extra parts and tools, but I wouldn't know how to change a serpentine belt on my bicycle if it had one, no less a DP. But, I changed a fuel filter at a rest stop after an engine code came up with the check engine light.

During this year's trip to Lake Placid last month driving up I81, my wipers stopped working during heavy rain. I made it to the Walmart in Watertown, NY driving 58 miles without wipers. I called a mobile mechanic from Google and the guy said he could make it out to me in 2 hours. I told him we were spending the night and if the AM was better for him no hurry. The next morning at 9 prompt he showed up and in an hour or so had my wipers fixed at a reasonable cost. So, luckily I had a good experience needing a mobile mechanic.
 
I've read there is an alternate belt and routing if the AC compressor freezes up. I may well get one of those too! And the tensioner pulley bearing has already been ordered ($7 instead of $24 for the pulley w/bearing). The old pulley is metal, so I pressed the old sleeve out to save the wheel.
 
That reminds me. I used to carry a spare serpentine belt because a friend of mine had one break in the middle of nowhere, which of course is where most of spend a lot of time. She had to wait a week while the local garage could get one sent to them.

I used the one I had and probably should get another one. I think they are only about $40 for my gas v10. I did ask the last truck mechanic who had to replace something on my vent system to check it, and he said it looked fine, but carrying a new one is good insurance. I could not change it, but at least I would have the part for the local garage that could.
 
JudyJB said:
That reminds me. I used to carry a spare serpentine belt because a friend of mine had one break in the middle of nowhere, which of course is where most of spend a lot of time. She had to wait a week while the local garage could get one sent to them.

I used the one I had and probably should get another one. I think they are only about $40 for my gas v10. I did ask the last truck mechanic who had to replace something on my vent system to check it, and he said it looked fine, but carrying a new one is good insurance. I could not change it, but at least I would have the part for the local garage that could.
Click to expand...
I would think you could buy a Ford V10 belt anywhere. There are lots of those V10's
around.

Is your 2012 Tioga a 2011 Ford?

You can order one here.

-Don- Reno, NV
 
I changed my belt and the two idler pulleys as well as the tensioner pulley at 90,000 miles. I carry the old belt and pulleys as spares.
 
I agree that you can buy that belt almost everywhere, but my friend was in a tiny town with barely an auto repair place. And I also am sometimes in places like that a long way from anything. And that place you suggested to order one from had a shipping time of 4-7 days. Easier to just buy one from a Ford dealer and carry it around with you, especially if you drive as many hours as I do, and live without a second vehicle.
 
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