How do you replace a serpentine belt on 1990 ply 3.3?

Answer 1

Just did this on my 1998 Voyager, so should be the same. With the van on jacks or ramps, remove the plastic splash shield that is under the car (it covers the bottom pulleys). It's held with a couple of small bolts and a plastic button. You don't necessarily have to do this, but it helps to get the belt routed properly. Using an open end 15mm wrench on the tensioner pulley bolt, pull towrds the front of the van as if to tighten. This puts slack and you can slip the belt off the idler pulley. Let the tensioner back and you can then fish the old belt off everything else and pull it out. You will almost surely need to use a short cheater bar on the wrench to be able to pull against the tensioner. You can buy a tesnioner wrench for about $20 at the auto parts store and it may be worth it to you. After the old belt is off, route the new one in place over all the pulleys except the idler pulley. Using the wrench, pull the same as to loosen and then slip the belt on the idler. It will then be in place and you can check from top and bottom that it is on all the pulleys properly. Be sure it is in the grooves correctly on all pulletys and not off a groove or two. Replace the splash shield and you're done. I would recommend changing the tensioner while you are at it. It is tough to get to, but not as tough as it looks. Take off the belt and from underneath remove the nut on the back of the tensioner (it has a bolt running out from it's center that goes through the mounting hole). You can reach it with a 15mm socket and short extension, even though it looks impossible to get to. A lot of it will be by feel, since it is hard to see the nut while removing it. Pull the old tensioner out, put in new and slip on the new belt as above. It took me about an hour to swap the tensioner and belt.