Hot damn that feels good!

Ever whoop a ridiculously hard jobs ass? That was me today.

The 5 has had an increasingly squeaky belt since I bought it. No amount of belt dressing was helping lately, the problem is that the A/C belt is a stretch-to-fit ($28!) and the "special tool" the chain stores sell to remove/install absolutely, positively, will not work. Changing a belt on a FWD is already bad enough!

Well this afternoon while mini-Jav was napping, I jacked that thing up, took off the wheel, removed the wheel well access panel, finagled the A/C belt off, swapped the serpentine for the new one, finagled the A/C belt back on (hint, thin metal slice, screwdrivers, cussing), and re-assembled. An hour after starting I had a test drive with a totally quiet belt, and the A/C still worked!

Berk yes!

I'd been dreading that job for months. Now I feel like I need to tackle some other ridiculous job, like cleaning off my work bench so I can build a new top for it, or swapping a Ford 8.8 with discs into the Javelin.

I love that feeling!

Stretch-to-fit? They do that now?

stretch to fit? Berk that!

Fix the work bench first, it will make future projects easyier

Dodge and Jeep also use a stretch belt on the power steering pump (new 4.0 V6)

Nathan JansenvanDoorn wrote: Stretch-to-fit? They do that now?

GM has been using the stretchy belt on the LSx AC compressors for the past 4 or 5 years.

Stretch-to-fit?

Seems to be the new Dayco method on all belts.

Seriously though, all belts have some stretch, and with the right pulley tool, you can flip them right up, or off, the pulley.

There are some really cool video's of doing this on old air cooled VW engines using nothing but a screwdriver.

Well SWMBO caught wind of me kicking ass, so I just got done replacing all the dim or burned out bulbs, cleaning out the inside of all the light fixtures, dusting the bedrooms and hallway, vacuuming all the rooms and under the beds and the cat tree and the couches. BERK ME!!!

You need to keep the victory dance more subdued. They see you struttin', the "to do" list is coming out.

Never had a car with a stretch-fit belt before, but one trick I learned for putting new "tires" on a bandsaw is to soak them in a bowl of warm water first to soften them up and make it easier to get em on. You have to wait for them to dry before using of course. Not sure if this would apply.