Is there an emergency serpentine belt installation -- 99 caravan 3.3? My belt came off the other day, I thought a stick (limb) caused it to happen (it was pouring rain and I had driven through a few inches of water, at an intersection low spot), P/S pully had a chunk out of it (fixed w/ help from this NG ,THX) . When I googled serpentine belt install there were many hits of the "belt off from water" type hits. Didn't know about this... This got me to thinking -- what if this happens out the other side Clayton (1/2 to the beach) w/ wife and two youngins.
1) Besides 15mm wrench and cheata pipe and a belt, what else should I have in the van? Is there a better tool? 2) Is there a way to put the belt on most of the pullys and bump the starter ? (yes, w/o fingers on the belt ;-) 2b) Could the spare belt be over-sized to aid installation in the middle of nowhere to get back to the world?I read somewhere that a GM part would fix the belt coming off, a wider tensioner pulley ( I think). I had to replace the tensioner not long ago, and the repacement was from the zone. I think it is wider than the OEM , I saw somewhere the belt was to be 2mm from edge, mine is a few (5?) mm plenty of meat on either side of the belt on the pulley. Also, there is no way I can move the tensionor w/ just a wrench much less far enough to get the belt on w/ the other hand ( I am a 200 lb farmboy) should it be that hard? I can move it to position but can't hold it... Thanks for the info --