Fan Belt Woes

B_Cack · Jan 3, 2005

I have a slight problem with my fan belt. I have a '93 XLT with 351, I have the single serpentine belt, and it is routed correctly and all that, but I have noticed some wear around the edges. Upon further inspection, I noticed that it sits correctly on all of the pulleys except the one the actual fan blade is mounted on. It seems to be riding the "lip" on that one, which is causing the shortened life of the poor belt. I can adjust it but taking some tension off and repositioning it, but as soon as I start up it just slips back. Is there any way to adjust that fan without causing a significant emotional event in my life?

Broncoholics · Jan 3, 2005

If it needs to go out further add some small washers behind the fan pulley.
If it needs to go in you got your hands full...

Guest_B-Cack · Jan 3, 2005

Of course I have my hands full... I was actually going to take it off and put on a flex fan, see if that helps at all

Broncoholics · Jan 3, 2005

Flex-a-lite fans are good but I found that my 302 would overheat in summer at freeway speeds. They only spin a certain speed. At idle or slow speeds it works great. When the motor rev's higher than the fan is spinning the motor will start to heat up where a mechanical fan will keep up.

Its nice to turn off the fan in deep water and not worring about the mechanical fan tossing water or hitting the radiator in boonies. Plus you gain slight horsepower taking it off.
But the mechanical fan will help all around if you have a shroud and clean radiator inside and out. Depends on what you do with the rig.

The pulley might be bent in a spot from dropping it. Thats all it takes to mess them up and will end up walking the blet off or thin it down to size.
You did match up the old belt with the new one to make sure you got the correct size?

Ziggy · Jan 4, 2005

Your problem may be caused by the flange on the water pump that the pulley and fan sit on. If the water pump has been replaced, when they pressed the flange on the shaft, they did not press it on far enough, moving the pulley forward. So your pulley does not run true and in line with your other pulley's. Switching to a flex fan will not correct this problem, the only solution would be to change the water pump. You could check and see if this is your problem by taking a measurement from the tip of the water pump shaft to the flange and then verifying it with another water pump at an auto parts store.