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Serpentine Belt - HELP!!!

GrandAm 93 Serpentine Belt gave up, several "wires" just broke up from it, external cap also gone, just half of the belt kept running, but of course very bad. Bought a new one, after two hours of playing a magician to suspend the engine using the car's jack, disassembling the engine support that goes in the middle of the belt, releasing the belt tensioner, I was able to replace the belt. All checked out to be ok, including the correct positioning of the belt around the grooved pulleys, perfect match, belt was very ok. Turned on the engine, everything smooth. Run the car around the WalMart parking lot where it happened, everything nice, turned on AC, fans, everything nice, almost 10 minutes running. Then found a nice spot to park the car and bring the wife to collect the car, when I turned off the AC, heard a noise for a moment. Turned off engine, found the new belt missing the edge wire (engine side) as if something just put a knife at the belt's edge. Found nothing that could cause that, a bolt head was dangerously close to that belt's edge, it was from the water pump, but close observation I see there is at least 2mm distance. Noticed that the belt tensioner is a little, little bit misaligned. Could it be the problem? What else could it be?

Some more info: A new battery was bought at WalMart 30 days ago. 15 days ago the battery was flat dead, no apparently reason. Made a jump start, everything went ok until 10 days ago, when every morning battery dead. Took off the 8 years old alternator, sent it to rebuild, everything was replaced. For 3 days no battery problems, then one day after another.

I guess this "bad new battery" is causing all the problems, blew up the alternator regulator, now is forcing so much the serpentine belt that it gave up.

What to do? Thank you.

Reply to
Wagner
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I also have a 93 grand am, and am surprised you had to do so much to replace the belt, I have replaced the alternator twice on mine and it is just a matter of putting a wrench on tensioner bolt and pushing the whole tensioner back towards the rear of the engine, you then slip the belt on the wheels. I have done it solo twice and putting the bolts back into the alternator is more difficult than replacing the belt.

I have heard plenty about bad batteries killing alternators, but not as much about alternators killing batteries. If the voltage regulator is bad it can overvoltage a battery, but that is the only failure mode I know of.

I wonder if your alternator is installed correctly, it may be out of line and causing the belt to wear, like I said it is the hard part to get back in there. Check to see if all three mounting bolts are still there and tightened correctly.

Reply to
john graesser

It sure sounds like you have the belt one groove notch off on the crank pulley or there is pulley wobble somewhere. I just looked at my 92 and the belt has at least one cm clearance from all bolts. That exact thing happened to me last year and I had the belt one notch off. The frayed belt cut through 3 ignition wires. You are right about the belt being difficult to replace. Three hands would help. Sometimes I take that inner fender flap off in order to get at the bottom pulley. I made a tensioner pulley wrench by cutting the box part off of a 18mm wrench and welding it to a pipe. Wal-Mart batteries: that's where I get mine. They last 13-15 months. My alternators used to last about 13 months also, but my last "high-heat, life time warranty" one ($165 US) has been on 3 years now.

Reply to
=?x-user-defined?Q?=AB?= Paul =?x-user-defined?Q?=BB?=

Huh?, 11 year old car....

Years ago I had my belt take a trip also. The crank pully sits on a rubberized cushion called a harmonic ballancer. It had dry rotted and the crank pully was far out of alienment and traveling worst. Check it for wobble and dry rot.

Reply to
Craig Watts

I replaced the belt tensioner on mine in July 94. At that time it was dealer only and cost me $95.25 US. There should be absolutely no wobble - none! It was fairly easy to replace. Another poster (Craig Watts) mentioned the harmonic balancer. He is right. I had to replace mine July 02. At that time it was dealer only for $102 US. Not belt related: Carefully inspect the rubber part of the motor mount that you have to split to get the belt on. I've had 3 on my car so far. If you let it go bad for too long it will destroy the right side cv joints & boots. It's $200 at the dealer or $68 at CarQuest just for the rubber insert (31-3656HY).

Reply to
=?x-user-defined?Q?=AB?= Paul =?x-user-defined?Q?=BB?=

Different engines. With the V6, you have to remove the upper engine mount to replace the belt.

Reply to
Dave

Disassembled everything, found the water pump pulley to be with slack, I mean, it was moving in and out of the shaft, so when it moves toward the engine it was touching the belt at its lower right bolt head.

Water pump replaced, new belt (second), everything is ok now.

The belt tensioner suspected before was not guilty at all, even that it is a little bit misaligned. According to the mechanic that little misaligned is not a big deal, it should be much more misaligned to cause a problem.

Thank you for your help.

Wagner.

Reply to
Wagner

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