Aron9000

Truck is a 1993 22RE, 2wd/5 speed if that makes a difference. About a year ago I replaced my radiator, replaced all the belts while I was at it since they looked cracked/dry rotted/old.

Since then the one that drives the alternator and water pump has been giving me troubles. First it started to squeal/slip. I ignored it for a month or three(truck gets driven maybe 4k miles a year, not every day). It got so bad that I ended up with a flat battery because it wasn't turning the alternator. I tightened it down and that seemed to solve my loose belt problem for a while.

Then when I was trying to pass somebody with my foot to the floor, the belt slipped off. I managed to get it back on there, tightened it down a good bit more since I figured it was loose.

Then coming home tonight, merging on the interstate, it snapped.

Did I get a junk belt, or maybe the wrong one from the parts counter? I'm thinking advance auto sold me the wrong one, because the one for the fan was nowhere near the right size and I had to exhange it. Any other thoughts as to what could be causing my problems?

I bought a belt from the dealer to avoid the idiots at advance auto. Also any advice on changing it? Looks like a real bitch with no room, it was easy to do when I had the radiator out.

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

Really hard to say if it was the wrong belt it very well could have been or just had a defect.

Bearings going out of the water pump will also loosen a belt.

Is it possible your pulleys are not lined up correct?

Belt rubbing on something ??

Just how were you putting tension on the belt??

New belts should be checked in about 50 miles some do stretch .

Also possible one or both the lock washers on the alternator bolts are missing or just worn out and the bolts loosen enough that the belt slips.

You just need to take your time installing the belts if your shroud is still on you might want to pull that.

superex87

x2 on a bearing going out. check that the water pump and the alt both spin with ease.

Aron9000

I was thinking of that as well.

Aron9000

That wouldn't surprise me one bit. Previous owner was a bit esoteric with his repairs, truck had been hit in the front and had some bailing wire holding the hood shut when I bought it. The damage was mainly cosmetic and did tweak the core support a bit, but it didn't damage anything on the engine.

Aron9000

Well I replaced the belt today with an OEM Toyota belt. I can definitely say the problem was with the belt I had on there. The old one was much too large. Never again will I use Advance auto for ANYTHING.

I can buy oil MUCH cheaper at Wal-Mart, waxes and detail supplies I can buy better stuff online, tools I can cheap out and go to Harbor Freight, or buy better stuff at Sears, Home Depot, or Loews.

All that being said, when I replaced the radiator about a year ago, I decided to do all three of the belts. That stupid Chinese advance auto radiator was NOT a direct fit, required much fiddling, and is held in with only three bolts instead of four. The belts were another fiasco. Two of them didn't fit, so I had to go back.

If I remember correctly, one of them was right on the 2nd try, one was not. I'm thinking I might have put back on the old belt for the alternator/water pump. Or I might have put on the poor fitting new belt, and just tilted the alternator to the right a good bit for it to fit.

I wish Toyota had put on a nice adjustable tension bracket for the alternator/water pump belt like they did for the a/c and power steering belt. It would take a lot of the guess work out as to how tight you have it. Plus it would be a lot easier than those stupid three bolts you have to tighten the alternator down with.

I did break the radiator shroud when I removed it, but it only took off the bottom chunk, between 6 to 8 o'clock. Oh well, now its stupid easy to remove lol.

Also I was an idiot when I changed the oil. Had two truck oil filters sitting next to 5 quarts of oil on my shelf. So I grab the oil, filter, drain the old oil, throw in a quart of new oil. Then I read the label, 5-w30, full synthetic that I probably paid a pretty penny for to put in the Lexus SC300. Went to ironically enough, Advance Auto, since its only 1 mile from my house, bought more 10-w30 conventional oil.

Probably running 8.5-w30 lol


Drove the truck on some errands, it performed flawlessly. No squeaks/squeals from the belt. Ran cool as a cucumber. Ran it up to 30 in 1st, up to 60 in 2nd, belt didn't slip, fly off, or disintegrate. Yeah by the time I'm done with this truck it will be sold for scrap lol.

Sturmcrow

Glad to hear you got it sorted out. You have probably already learned this now, but it is never a bad idea to compare new parts to old when you are swapping out (if you trust that the old parts were the correct ones to begin with). It is pretty easy to loop the new belt and old belt over your thumbs and stretch them out to make sure they are the same size.

The advantage of buying parts locally is that you can just pop in and exchange them when you get the wrong part. Sometimes it is not even the parts store's fault (a friend's Ford Fiesta had parts from 3 or 4 different model years, that was a PITA let me tell you). I often buy parts online, but if they don't fit you end up wasting a lot of time with returns and exchanges.

I once tried to change out brake calipers on a friend's car. For some reason all of the left calipers actually had right calipers in the box, like ALL of them. The Autozone clerk ended up needing to call around to 4 other stores to find one that had the bleeder valve on the correct side, and the other stores had the same problem with most of their calipers being in the wrong boxes.