Hello,
I have a question below about grandfather's 93 dodge caravan / plymouth voyager. Its a 3.3 and the serpentine / drive belt has 6 groves running the length of it if that helps.
Is this the appropriate newsgroup to post a repair question or is there a better place?
I noticed last weekend the serpentine drive belt began squeeking but I didn't think much of it at the time as it hadn't caused a problem.
My grandfather went to start the car yesterday morning after driving home from work with the lights on the night before. When he got in yesterday morning. It wouldn't start due to a dead battery. I charged it for a few hours on a slow charge and then tried to start it, it would run for a few seconds but only when I kept my foot on the accelerator and when I took it off it would stall. So I gave it a full charge over night and it appears to run fine today, but I'm worried that it's not getting a charge by the car and I don't want him to get halfway home and have the battery run flat on him and have him on the side of the road.
I'm trying to add some tension to the belt as it began squeaking when ideling and accelerating the other day. At the same time I noticed that my headlights, digital clock, and dome lights are dimmer until I rev the engine, when they return to normal until I take my foot off the accelrator.
I'm assuming I either have a belt problem, a belt tensioner problem, or an alternator problem.
I took a look at a chilton manual last night and according to the diagram of the belt tensioner, I just needed to put a 15mm wrench on the nut and go counter clockwise to tighten the belt up. I moved it as much as I could (its hard to get my hand and a shortwrench in there so theres not much leverage) it tightend slightly (very slightly) and the squeek disappeared for about a half a minute before it came back. The belt appeared to loosen a bit as well.
Is there another way to tighented a drive belt or is it an indication that the belt, tenisioner and or alternator needs to be replaced?
I have a little radio shack multimeter if that will be of any help diagnosing the problem.
thanks for the advice, I'm over my head here...