-
Radiator fan belt
Natalie was driving through the mountains about 90 outside when she got a Check Engine Next Stop message and the CE light came on. All gauges looked ok and temp for oil and water were both around 209. She had just down shifted from 6 to 4 for a hill. We stopped at a Pilot and I opened the engine bay and checked oil level (still good). Nothing else seemed out of place except the radiator fan belt has some fraying on the edge closest to the outside of the bus.
I plan to swap it out at our destination this afternoon, after the engine cools. Two questions: 1. After releasing air from the tensioners, how do I loosen the belt enough to get it off? ,2. Is there anything else I should check or worry about?
Thanks.
-
22 Replies
-
-
It will come right off Karl when you dump the air and the belt needs changed, but doubt that is what caused the lights. Make sure the coolant is above the site glass. You could be dealing with a faulty coolant sensor as well. Since your temp didn’t rise above normal, I would bet low coolant or the sensor.
-
There are lots of faults that can trigger the CEL it might not have anything to do with temperature,the code should be stored in the Detroit Diesel ECM.
-
Just turn the red knob on the valve at the top of the engine bay near the oil reservoir. That should dump the air to the belt tensioners.
But in looking at the photo it looks like the belt that is on there is too narrow. I haven’t looked at my bus, but I think my belts cover all the grooves in the pulleys. I would also look very carefully to see what might be rubbing on the edge of the belt.
-
Jon I agree, It looks to me like a 1/8″ or so is missing on one sided of the belt.
-
I believe that is a 12 rib pulley. If that be true the current belt is wrong. Based on the rust, it’s been there for awhile.
Should of been noticed incorrect on bus service / inspection.
Gear box to fan with tension spring pulley….right ?
Prevost part number….507627 Note; this part number is on the belt and mfg by Dayco. In translation of the part numbers you will not find this belt doing normal cross referance at your local NAPA store. Prevost did a bulk order for this 12 rib belt.
With that said this might explain why there is the incorrect belt on this application.
827K12BU …is the Dayco referance and the “BU” stands for Bulk Order.
Karl…FWIW all the rusty ribs need to be wire brushed before installing a new belt
And this is why parts countermen have gray hair.
-
Al I believe you have the wrong part number, the part number is. This is the one prevosts sells for my bus and it should be the same for Karl’s
-
Al I believe you have the wrong part number for that belt, this is the one -
I’am looking at the belt on Karl’s bus. Seeing pulley grooves tells me the belt is wrong.
I’am guessing that your belt is a 10 rib, reading the part number info.
My part number is a 12 rib
-
Jon, I did get the belt on after letting the air out. I just had to figure out to make room by pushing down on the tensioner and then turning the pulley to get the new one on it.
Al, That is the belt I had as my backup and is now installed. It perplexed me that the old belt and the only one I had as a potential backup were not of the same width, but I counted the grooves in the pulley and figured that they should match the ribs on the belt, which they do. The old belt had two missing ribs from fraying. Both belts are 82 inches and 12 grooves. Unfortunately, I didn’t see your post until after visiting NAPA and seeing what the counter guy couldn’t do…I made another post asking some general questions about belts because of it. This should be a relatively easy learning experience.
Tomorrow I will remove the belt again and wire brush the rust. Thanks for that.
I ordered another belt from Troy that should get here soon. He said that he orders them from Prevost, so they should be the same as the old one. The one that was on there is the 507627 that you show in your picture. The new one was in my bay and could have come from either the previous owner or Liberty, as I did ask them to make sure that I had duplicates of everything. While same length and number of ribs, this one seems a little thicker.
How do you know so much about NAPA?
-
You are right Al mine is a 10 rib belt but fits good on pulley and the number I have the belts came from Prevost ,
I will check with Prevost this morning about the part number they may have a mix up in parts numbers -
It’s not unusual to get the wrong belt for the fan drive, 10 groove instead of 12. I doubt your belt lost two ribs, someone probably put the wrong belt on. If it’s shredding a belt, that’s pretty easy to see in the engine area.
FWIW, that gates 12 groove is hard to find, so not surprised the Napa guy couldn’t sort it out. Here’s a cross reference:
827K12 K Series Serpentine Belt Replacement Belt For: K120827, Dayco 5120827, Napa 25-120827, Napa 25120827, Goodyear 4120827, Bando 12PK2100
-
Peter talked to Prevost this morning and there was a change from 10 groove to 12 grove. Peter’s coach is an 02 and it takes the 10 groove belt. In 04, Prevost changed to the 12 groove pulleys and belts.
So if you have an earlier bus and someone changed out the fan hub, you would then have a 12 groove instead of the 10 groove. Both pulleys need changed at the same time.
This could be what happened with Karls bus, but someone installed the 10 groove belt in error when it should have been the 12 groove.
-
With all this high tech parts talk sort of gets my parts mind going again. The one point that is above and beyond in Karl’s message ;
That is the belt I had as my backup and is now installed.
Way to go Karl a home run….carrying a spare. Sorting this all out when your parked at home.
AL
-
Yeah, Ditto what Al said.. After a recent issue with my alternator belt…. I went to get my backup and eventhough it was purchased from Prevost it wasn’t the correct belt..so now I am triple checking eveything to confirm that my backups are in fact the right belts.
Bill
Log in to reply.