fan belts, logic and auto part store morons

[grumpyvette]

last night my brother in law with the 1974 corvette had a fan belt fail, obviously not a huge issue right?
well his corvette has a 3 groove crank pulley and a 3 groove water pump pulley and a two groove power steering pump

THERE ARE INTERACTIVE GUIDES
http://www.gates.com/part_locator/index ... on_id=3598

well until he went to a local advance auto parts and got the listed fan belts, and they listed about 4 different fan belts for the 7.4 V8 engine, he bought all four figuring on returning the one that might not fit, but to his amazement NOT one of the 4 listed belts fit , and on top of that all the belts were about 3/8' wide, and the belt sat in the very bottom of the existing pulley grooves, which is 100% sure to indicate the wrong fan belt.
so today I drove to a second auto parts store after carefully measuring the required fan belt length with a few sections of 3/8" rope and a tape measure.
I then spent 45 minute trying to get the moron parts girl to understand that if I knew the fan belt width and length that the fan belt part number could be figured out.
the parts girl could not understand and would not bother to look for as belt unless I told her the old brand year and model and engine routine, now I understand shes never for an instant, considered the wild unbelievable idea that the gates belt number actually signified anything about the belt size, nore would she for a second consider that the suggested fan belt was not going to fit because we had just tried the suggested belts and they don,t fit! but its frustrating to deal with morons......after 45 minutes i left, drove to bennet auto parts where I gave the info to the old (my age) geezer behind the parts counter and in 5 minutes I had the correct belts in hand ! twenty minutes later the belts are on the car and miracle of miracles! they fit!
Belt sizing is fairly simple, you don't need to know the part number for the size belt you need, you just need to figure out how the part number is made up, as it is made up of the belt width, and the circumference of the belt. with Gates V belts it's pretty simple to figure out as the information is easy to read out of the part numbers.

I'll only explain Gates belts, there the most common belts used and there # cross reference to other company's anyway

You have the belt width, it is in a code but simple to follow, as it's only 2 numbers

67= 3/8" width

68= 1/2" width

69= 5/8" width

Now that you have the width you need, you just need the length which is easy it's the actual measurement in inches with one decimal place, in HALF INCH INCREMENTS only. The decimal is omitted for the part number

So for example a 50" long 5/8" belt might be needed, so you order a 6950 belt. A 5/8" belt 50 1/2" inches long would be a 6955

just to make sure that length is available go to http://www.gates.com and search the part number

http://www.daycoproducts.com/dayco®-belt-tension-gauges
WATCH VIDEO
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/dac-93865

V_BELTS

SERPENTINE BELTS

related info

http://crossbelts.com/conventionalvbelts.html

http://crossbelts.com/conventional/bvbeltsizes.html

http://www.goodyearep.eu/productsDetail ... gType=2057

http://www.autobeltsonline.com/serpenti ... rence.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_7510183_read-fa ... mbers.html

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=258&p=1071&hilit=belt+route#p1071

viewtopic.php?f=87&t=3060&p=18616&hilit=pulley+belt#p18616

http://crossbelts.com/serpentine/6ribkseries.html

 

[87vette81big]

I went through similar parts store headaches last few days Grumpy.
I look up parts myself on the computer & my smart phone.
The Suburban broke the left rear shock yesterday. Area roads are terrible.
Potholes all over. Some 1 foot deep.
Driving around the area is like Off roading on Rock Terrain.
Found the rear shocks today at Autozone.
$25.99 each for Gas charged Gabrials.
Headset for the wifes Honda is on order. No one stocks parts like they used to.
1-3 day wait. Or in the Wharehouse in Chicago.
Been trying to stock up on spare parts.
Write the accessory belt numbers down for your Brother in Laws Corvette.
Clear scotch tape to the inside glove box door.

 

[mathd]

should have bought 3-4 of them while there was some in stock.
Sometime its a great idea.

v-belt are things of the past now
in 10 years, you will need the "back in the futur" delorean to get one of those

Joke aside, i use rockauto or other internet site to look-up parts number and price too.

 

[87vette81big]

V- belts will be around for some time yet.
Still used in Industrial applications.
Racing use.
You ever go Dirt Track Racing for one season or more,
Serpantine belts won't hold up with all the dirt, mud, hard clay, Silica & Quartz dust, big rocks thrown in at speed.

 

[mathd]

V- belts will be around for some time yet.
Still used in Industrial applications.
Racing use.
You ever go Dirt Track Racing for one season or more,
Serpantine belts won't hold up with all the dirt, mud, hard clay, Silica & Quartz dust, big rocks thrown in at speed.

Yay finally someone replyed to one of my post .(i know i post too much bullshit)

But yeah, that make sense, No dirt track racing around here so i dont really know what it is.

 

[87vette81big]

V- belts will be around for some time yet.
Still used in Industrial applications.
Racing use.
You ever go Dirt Track Racing for one season or more,
Serpantine belts won't hold up with all the dirt, mud, hard clay, Silica & Quartz dust, big rocks thrown in at speed.

Yay finally someone replyed to one of my post .(i know i post too much bullshit)

But yeah, that make sense, No dirt track racing around here so i dont really know what it is.

Its kinda like small time NASCAR Racers on dirt tracks 3/8 mile long, 1/2 mile, 1 full mile.
Racers run counter clockwise in circles.
Left hand racing.
Popular in the midwest, southern states, parts of California.
Races last from 20-200 laps.
Lots of high speed action. Crashles.
Y

 

[87vette81big]

V- belts will be around for some time yet.
Still used in Industrial applications.
Racing use.
You ever go Dirt Track Racing for one season or more,
Serpantine belts won't hold up with all the dirt, mud, hard clay, Silica & Quartz dust, big rocks thrown in at speed.

Yay finally someone replyed to one of my post .(i know i post too much bullshit)

But yeah, that make sense, No dirt track racing around here so i dont really know what it is.

Its kinda like small time NASCAR Racers on dirt tracks 3/8 mile long, 1/2 mile, 1 full mile.
Racers run counter clockwise in circles.
Left hand racing.
Popular in the midwest, southern states, parts of California.
Races last from 20-200 laps.
Lots of high speed action. Crashles.
Y

 

[87vette81big]

Small tracks speeds of 90-100mph.
Big tracks 140-150 mph .
On dirt. :mrgreen:

 

[mathd]

darn, thats fast. it look more interesting that drag racing is to me .
I love offroad stuff.