Serpintine belt replacement

[Pat Z]

Does anyone know how you access the belt on an Fleetwood Excursion on a Spartan chassis diesel pusher?

[Pat Z]

Does anyone know how you access the belt on an Fleetwood Excursion on a Spartan chassis diesel pusher?

[quikduk]

Good question. I need to change out my serpentine belt on my '98 275 HP Cummins and it appears I have to access it via the top through/under the bed/engine covers. This will be a contortionists dream so we'll see. I might take pics if I remember. I know I have to take off the engine AC compressor belt to get to the serp. belt so I'll replace that for good measure as well. Now if I can just find the time...

[quikduk]

Well I completed the belt replacement this past Saturday. What a PITA! Nex time, I'll cut the old belts off first.

I was able to finally get the AC compressor loose enough to pivot after loosening all of the bracket bolts. You don't need too much but enough to allow the bolts to barely spin. It also helps to lightly spray some WD-40 on the brackets and bolts to help break any corrosion.

I had to crouch while perched on the valve cover in order to get enough leverage on the tensioner pulley. Next time I'll use a longer (read custom made by me) 3/8" drive breaker bar (sort of an "S" bend with a much longer handle (or maybe I'll modify a long handled ratchet) to make it easier since you need to get almost all of the travel on the tensioner before you can slip the belt off.

Also, since you have to essentially do this by "feel", you need to really watch those fingers. If they were to get caught by the tensioner, I am positive they would get cut off.

I still have all of mine though...

BTW, my serpentine belt was seriously cracked and the top was starting to shred. It was probably the original (+80K on it) but I can't emphasize enough how important it is to check these things every 5K to 10K miles.

Ken