A/C Serpentine Belt

'99 Silverado Ext Cab, 5.3 A/C serpentine belt broke at 25K and replacement Gates belt broke 10K later. All parts connected to belt turn freely and without noise. All components appear to be in alignment and there are not sharp places. Belts appear to have been ripped apart and original joint seam is intact. Anyone else having this problem. Any ideas how to prevent this would be appreciated. These belts are expensive.

Reply to
Autumn
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Check your idler pulley wheel. The bearing goes and they tear up or cause you to loose a belt.

Reply to
Fraudbasher

Also check the belt tensioner...........if it's too loose it'll slip the belt which promptly gets chewed up by the nearest moving object (usually the fan)

Doc

Reply to
"Doc"

I actually meant the belt tensioner wheel. It is usually the first to go.

Reply to
Fraudbasher

Try an OEM belt. There is a lot of Chinese and Mexican made junk in the parts aftermarket these days.

Randy

Reply to
Randal O'Brian

As several have already posted, check out idler roller bearings. Also check out alternator, water pump, or anything else that this belt turns. When the belt is tightned, it buts lots of pressure against the bearing of each device, so if any of them are wearing out, they become hard to turn and overheat and lock up, causing the belt to be destroyed and come off. I would check all this first. Hope this helps. Robie

Reply to
Robie

The belt you're talking about on your GenIII ONLY powers the AC, right?

Mine has a main serpentine for the "usual" stuff, and then a seperate crank-driven serpentine-style belt for the AC.

I've heard of this happening on GenIII message boards, and it has usually been the AC compresor.

It'll freewheel okay when the AC's not engaged, but when it's run the pump usually has too much drag which will eat up the belt. (The belt is pretty loosely tensioned.)

-marc

Reply to
Marc Westerlind

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