Dodge: '97 Caravan V6 power steering...

I looked at it and right away saw that it threw the belt. Not sure why it
would do that, possibly a bad tensioner. My parents had a shop replace that
not too long ago, so if that's bad they may have them replace it or whatever
under whatever warranty the part carries. Now If I could just figure out how
to work the tensioner to put the belt on???

Cory

"Cory Dunkle" <net> wrote in message
news:com... 
out. 
experience 
a 

Got the belt back on. I'm wondering why the belt came off though. I've never
seen this sort of thing. Hell, I once had a 289 that I had up to nearly 8
grand a few times and regularly to 6500-7000 and it never threw a belt even
at those high RPM. I was using stock pulleys and belts too, no fancy deep
groove pulleys or anything. I don't understand why this thing should be
throwing belts at such low RPM. The tensioner seems to be putting lots of
tension on the belt and is not siezed up or binding. The belt looks good and
is only a year old, if that. The tensioner has been replaced at least 2-3
times so far, and I believe the mileage is about 70,000. This is just
ridiculous. I don't think I should repalce the tensioner as it seems fine,
and the belt also seems fine. Not worn oddly, no cracks, not smooth/burnt or
anything on the backside either.

"Cory Dunkle" <net> wrote in message
news:com... 
that 
whatever 
how 
and 
of 
power 
in 
pump 

If the pulleys arent aligned, if the vehicle gets into deep snow, if there
is a coolant leak getting on the pulleys or the tensioner could be bad. All
this will cause the belt to come off. depending on what engine you
have......a missing a/c drain sock dumping water on the P/S pump pulley
could cause this on turns
"Cory Dunkle" <net> wrote in message
news:com... 
never 
even 
and 
or 
it 
went 
point 

The engine is the 3.3l. When looking at it from the front the belt sits on
the tensioner slightly to the left of where the belt is above the tensioner.
When you rev the engine the belt moves to the right on the tensioner, then
when it returns to idle the belt moves back to the left. it seemed to me as
though the pulleys may not all be lined up like they should.

Also, how do I determine if the tensioner is bad?

Furthermore, this seems like a bad design, with the idler pulley and
tensioner being so thin and not having a lip on the edges to keep the belt
from coming off. To me it just seems like something that would be simple and
common sense to keep the belt in place. Kinda like V pulleys. The belts very
rarely come off, and only then at extremely high RPM or if there is a
problem with the belt or a bad pulley alignment issue. I don't know, I'm
still learning things about these new cars.

"maxpower" <com> wrote in message
news:com... 
All 
8 
deep 
of 
2-3 
fine, 
smooth/burnt 
out 
up 
much 

One common failure mode of the tensioner shaft is for it to "bend" or go
off axis from the backing plate under tension. In other cases, the
backing plate itself bends, causing the entire unit to go out of plane
with the mounting surface.

Given the number of such multi-failure reports by owners, and garages
doing a big business in Dodge serpentine belt tensioner replacements, it
is a bad design, pure and simple.

It should have been subject to a recall.


Cory Dunkle wrote: