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I recently uninstalled and sold my underdrive pulley and reinstalled the factory crank pulley.
I then put on the factory length serpentine belt and drove the car to its temporary home at my parents house while I do some work in my garage. About a mile or so away from its destination the belt began shrieking and my fears were realized when it broke.
I made it without overheating, luckily there was a lot of downhill so I would kill the engine and put it in neutral and do some coasting - it got up to about 230* (I have a digitial aftermarket water temp gauge) and it did puke just a bit out of the overflow. Heads/gaskets seem perfectly fine, she continued to run without any new noises and no sign of water in the exhaust or oil.
Heres why the belt broke: I forgot about the OVERdrive pulley I installed on the alternator when I installed the underdrive on the crank. I did this because alternator output on the LQ1 is subpar if you spin it too slow. So the problem was that the overdrive on the alternator (a smaller than stock pulley) meant that the factory length belt was out of spec - too long, it slipped and destroyed itself.
Now - I need a new belt. A factory length belt will be too long, I'm guessing I need something that is about an inch shorter for the tensioner to work right. I know that some of the numbers in the belt part number indicate its length but I just can't seem to remember. My other thought is that the belt I installed was old and probably stretched a bit and perhaps that was a factor as well. For what its worth IIRC the overdrive on the alternator is somewhere between ~15-18%
So my question to the forum is, can anyone identify serpentine belt nomenclature for me? In other words what numbers indicate # of ribs and belt length? Anyone happen to know these numbers for a STOCK 3.4 belt (1991)? That way I could go to the part store and just find a belt that is ~1/2" or so longer.
I then put on the factory length serpentine belt and drove the car to its temporary home at my parents house while I do some work in my garage. About a mile or so away from its destination the belt began shrieking and my fears were realized when it broke.
I made it without overheating, luckily there was a lot of downhill so I would kill the engine and put it in neutral and do some coasting - it got up to about 230* (I have a digitial aftermarket water temp gauge) and it did puke just a bit out of the overflow. Heads/gaskets seem perfectly fine, she continued to run without any new noises and no sign of water in the exhaust or oil.
Heres why the belt broke: I forgot about the OVERdrive pulley I installed on the alternator when I installed the underdrive on the crank. I did this because alternator output on the LQ1 is subpar if you spin it too slow. So the problem was that the overdrive on the alternator (a smaller than stock pulley) meant that the factory length belt was out of spec - too long, it slipped and destroyed itself.
Now - I need a new belt. A factory length belt will be too long, I'm guessing I need something that is about an inch shorter for the tensioner to work right. I know that some of the numbers in the belt part number indicate its length but I just can't seem to remember. My other thought is that the belt I installed was old and probably stretched a bit and perhaps that was a factor as well. For what its worth IIRC the overdrive on the alternator is somewhere between ~15-18%
So my question to the forum is, can anyone identify serpentine belt nomenclature for me? In other words what numbers indicate # of ribs and belt length? Anyone happen to know these numbers for a STOCK 3.4 belt (1991)? That way I could go to the part store and just find a belt that is ~1/2" or so longer.
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