Saturday Wrestling with a serpentine belt
Well I finally quit procrastinating today and did the belt change job on our 2016 Winnebago Adventurer 38 q with the V-10 engine. While I was in there I changed the tensioner also.
The tensioner change was easy. I found that crawling up in front and just inside the passenger side front wheel well gave me good side access to the tensioner. The three bolts came out easily and the new one went one even easier.
The serpentine belt? Well that's another story. I've changed more belts than I can count over the past 60+ years but this one made history for me as being the most difficult belt change job. On paper it would seem that a serpentine belt change would be very easy.
I have a tensioner tool to release the belt from the tensioner. That went well. Using it to get the belt back on was another story-- just could not get the clearance or angle to use it adequately.
Routing the new belt- even with the drawing was quite challenging, not so much for the layout but for all the obstructions.
I removed the doghouse and my wonderful mechanic assistant- the DW assisted from the top, primarily stabilizing the new belt on the water pump and the alternator. She was pretty uncomfortable laying down on her belly and reaching over the front of the block- but she was a great help holding the belt in place on those critical pulleys.. The number of spaghetti A/C hoses and coolant lines from the engine to the front radiators on bottom was a major problem leaving no room to access anything on the front of the block.
After 5 hours of wrestling with the belt and pulleys I finally got everything lined up and somehow managed to spring the tensioner on to the belt for the final movement. It would have been a relatively easy and quick job if the engineers that designed the F53 had been a bit more thoughtful about long term maintenance needs.
The one take away that seemed to be important to my effort was to start by hanging the belt over the alternator after getting it over the fan, then getting it stable on the water pump which contacts the smooth un-ribbed side of the belt making it harder to stay in place, then work outwards from there.
Oh well- this preventive maintenance activity at 66,000 miles is in the bag. I have several more projects underway on the rig, but this was has been one of the most challenging (it didn't need to be). But I am glad I did it myself and didn't chunk out a boatload of dollars to have it done in a shop.
__________________
__________________
Joe a/k/a "Americanrascal"
2016 Winnebago Adventurer 38Q +tow dolly
8th RV to sit in our driveway in 50 years
|