What do you think

Mnk

New member
Just bought 28,400 miles 02" Ltng-"Pretty sure" pulleys are stock(not much info from 3rd owner(guy i bought it from)
s/c pulley is 3.25" dia
On my to do list for the shop I put "Change drive belts"
They seem ok-no visible cracks/pliable best I can tell
But they are after all 19 yrs old some say belts that old should be changed "regardless" because of age
What do you think
Do they ever break?Should i change them
 
You posted the exact same thing over at LightningRodder. And I'll do the same. ;-)

Yeah. That rear belt will be a royal pain to the uninitiated. You have to remove the entire front pulley and the cage it's attached to, off the engine, to get the rear belt off. If the shop you take it to doesn't know how to do this, and doesn't have the correct tools to do it, there's no way they can do it. It requires a tool that attaches to the torque converter, after removing an inspection cover off the transmission. Very special tool, that prevents the engine from turning while they wrestle with getting the large tight center bolt out of the lower pulley. Not fun at all. best to get with someone local with a Lightning and have them help you with it, rather than some unknown shop that has no idea what they're in for. It also takes a really long breaker bar and strong allen key attachment. And sometimes they strip rather than loosen the bolt. Also it's a backwards bolt. It tightens to the left and loosens to the right. So that engine rotation helps keep it from coming off during it's lifetime.

It's also much easier to take the lower pulley off from above, rather than from below. But this requires removing the fan and shroud. They come out together. You put a large crescent wrench on the nut behind the fan, and whack it with a large mallet towards the passenger side, until it breaks loose. Than remove two bolts that retain the shroud and lift them both out at the same time. Easier to remove the shroud if you drain a gallon of coolant and remove the upper hose.

It's a pretty involved process. But, to someone who has done it, it's a drop-in-the-bucket. Easy Peasy. Piece-of-pie, easy-as-cake. And while it's apart, replace the stock lower pulley with a two-piece aftermarket pulley that eliminates the octopus cage, so you don't have to remove it in the future to replace the belt. After that, lower pulley changes are easy to do. Two pound, four pound, six pound lowers. Yes, you can get a stock size lower pulley for the aftermarket two-piece designs.

If the belts look good, don't sweat it. The blower belt is easy to change. But if you're still on stock pulleys, likely not necessary. It's not likely slipping on the pulleys if stock.

Sorry I wrote a novella. LOL!
 
Also, is it a Harley truck? That 3.25 upper is too big. Stock Lighting has a 2.93 upper. But, you may be measuring to the edges of the pulley. The proper place to measure is the surface the belt rides on.
 
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