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Which Serpentine belt setup to use?

4446 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  HemiTCoupe
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In my junkyard scrounging, I have come up with different serpentine belt setups to use for my 406. I narrowed it down to two.

Serpentine setup A is a from a mid 90's van that I cutoff part of the passenger side bracket.


Serpentine setup B
is from a early 90's suburban with a a/c delete pulley. The belt is missing but runs from the a/c delete pulley under the tensioner arm and to the alternator.


I am leaning towards setup A as it is less cluttered. What do you think?

Thanks - John
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Here is what I did.. In your 2nd picture you have the right hand bracket (left bracket in the picture) that holds the A/C delete pulley, and the belt tensioner. On my car I only used the left hand bracket (right side in the pic) which holds the alt. & P/S pump, then I put a long stud in the hole for the water pump on the right side (left side of pump in the pic) and worked my spring tensioner on that stud.. Doing it that way eliminates the right side bracket (left side in pic) all together.

My belt now runs like this (picture this on your 2nd pic)-over the alternator down and around the P/S pulley, up and over the top of the water pump (reverse rotation) and then down and around the crank, then up to the tensioner which holds the belt above the water pump pulley then on to the the top of the alternator pulley again. This is a VERY clean set up with no extra brackets, pulley, and a shorter belt. If my motor was together, I would gladly send you a picture. But I think you get the idea..

I only have Alt, P/S, water pump, crank, and tensioner pulley's-a total of 5. In your 2nd pic you have 6 I think..
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As I mentioned, my motor is torn apart right now, and nothing is on the block so I can't send you a picture. I will tell you that I had to use a late model tensioner (off a '98 Camaro with LS1) instead of the one that would normally be used with the brackets that I am using (off a 95 GMC truck). Instead of pushing down on the belt, the belt rides on top of the tensioner and the tensioner pushes the belt up and away from the water pump to keep the belt tight.

I do have the wrapper that came around my Gates belt, but it is at work. I "believe" that the belt is approx. 42". That is a guess as it has been a while since I purchased it.

I can confirm it on Monday if you would like to e-mail me.
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