I guess I should have taken a picture before tearing into this. I am having a bit of trouble figuring out how the belts are situated now that I am putting things back together. I am pretty sure I have the pulleys on properly and I have tried looking in both the FSM and my Chilton book but haven't been able to find a pic or diagram showing the belts. I do have the timing belt back on (and I even remembered to re-attach the spring to the belt tensioner).
I am sure the shortest 'toothed' belt is for the power steering and water pump. The one that is really confusing me it the flat one with the 3 grooves in it. I can't seem to figure out the proper path for it. Can someone post a pic or a drawing of how it is supposed to be run?
the belt with three grooves goes around the crank pulley, water pump, and alternator. good luck on the new repair!
if it aint there, there's a good chance it won't break!
83 SR5 Silver/Blue (Snowmobile/work beater)-totaled but drivable
85 SR5 Blue
88 SR5 White (the 'good' one)-not anymore-totaled
87 fwd silver wagon a/t
87 4wd dx Cream (a/t- not anymore- now m/t)
rer233 wrote:the belt with three grooves goes around the crank pulley, water pump, and alternator. good luck on the new repair!
Hmmm, I am wondering if I put the pulley on the alternator correctly...it doesn't seem to line up properly. I am going to go out and take another look. Thanks.
Problem partially solved. The water pump pully was wrong side out. Now everything lines up but I discovered the belt they sold me is waaayyy too short even with the generator pulled to its closest point. So...another trip to the auto parts store is upcoming.
Bluebelles Mom wrote:I discovered the belt they sold me is waaayyy too short even with the generator pulled to its closest point. So...another trip to the auto parts store is upcoming.
don't you just love wrenching? i just had an experience asking parts places for the CV seal. i explained it very clearly but no one knew what to call it, everyone wanted to sell me the pinion seal, which i figured was not it. finally found someone who actually understood, and said it was listed as a transmission output seal. so many parts geeks have no idea what they're selling.
davidlucasbarnes wrote:...and surprise, surprise. the transmission output seal they gave me is the wrong one as well. i love removing my cv's over and over and over.
know that you are not alone in your frustration, BBM.
I just decided to get my money back. I will either go to another store or order one online. O'Reillys has pretty good pricing on a lot of stuff but the staff are clueless for the most part. And since I am similarly mechanically challenged I figure one of us ought to know what they are doing.
if your car is (or was) equipped with an A/C, the alternator bracket is different and it requires a slightly longer belt. The non-A/C car takes the shorter belt. He should have asked you if your car was A/C equipped or not. I think the belt necessary for the A/C equipped car can be make to work on the non-A/C car but it will be all the way out at the end of its travel. The other way does not work. The a/c runs its own belt, but the length of belt that goes around your alternator/waterpump/crank pulley is affected.
BTW, as you found, the power steering pump belt just goes around the crank pulley and the pump, adjustment is a PIA, requires to you loosen 4 bolts in different locations.
Yeah the kid behind the counter asked me if it had AC and I told him it had been taken out. I guess he assumed the alternator mount had been swapped or something. Next time I am just saying is has AC so there will be no confusion.
I guess I should have taken a picture before tearing into this. I am having a bit of trouble figuring out how the belts are situated now that I am putting things back together. I am pretty sure I have the pulleys on properly and I have tried looking in both the FSM and my Chilton book but haven't been able to find a pic or diagram showing the belts. I do have the timing belt back on (and I even remembered to re-attach the spring to the belt tensioner). 
