What is the advantage of the serpentine drive

[phred]

I'm doing some work on a truck and the owner wants to know if going to a serp setup is better. I told him I don't know. Never had one on one of my EB's and to me it is riskier. Loose the belt and all accessories are gone. With the multi belt set up I can usually limp home. Lose the PS belt an drive home with "armstrong steering". Loose the alternator belt and make it at least 50 miles in day light.

What am I missing?

 

[lonesouth]

Carry a spare belt and you won't have to worry about it. In my driving for the last 16 years, i've yet to loose a serp belt. Course, I don't have any experience with v-belts, I quickly swapped in explorer stuff on both of my broncos.

Reasons to do the swap(specifically explorer):
1. No more squeeling
2. better alternator
3. better fan
4. better PS pump
5. No more squeeling

Reasons not to do it:
1. single belt, no redundancy
2. hooking up the stock radiator requires some work

 

[Bronc67]

Do it. Grab a junk yard 5.0 Explorer setup. There is a great tech article in the Bronco Tech section. No more squeaks or squeals, powerful and durable Explorer alternator, steering pump, even an A/C compressor, lets not forget the clutch fan. Now your talkin'. Could get expensive if you clean it up with a reverse flow radiator and an electric fan. When is the last time a mom lost a serp belt on the way to a soccer game in the Explorer? It seems unlikely, I say go for it.

 

[techlaf]

I had to change my first serpentine belt ever last week. I got my current Bronco with the BC serpentine belt already on it. It's the fox body mustang serp setup that was installed about a year ago. The Dayco brand belt had split and was frayed in only a year of maybe 1000 miles of driving.

I had to take my fan shroud off to get to the tensioner even with a serpentine belt tool. Kind of a pain in the ass to do that, but not too bad. I bought a much higher quality Gates belt and I hope it lasts much longer. If I had an open crows foot socket I might not have had to take the shroud off.

The offset tool for the tensioner and an extra belt is a must have in the truck toolbox. With all that said, I'll stick with the serpentine. One belt and quieter.

 

[Skiddy]

i lost my first serpentine belt last year on my f250 with 130k on it, stock belt%)

 

[stock1970]

If it isnt broke dont fix it. serp is easier to replace but if you are sticking with the stock alternator and power steering then the v belt is good enough. imo.. I just dont have a reason to upgrade to the serp yet.

 

[Socal Tom]

Serp belts will give you much less trouble. A single v-belt can't reliably handle more than 65 amps. I'm sure there will be some on here that are using single v-belts with bigger alternators, but Ford didn't ship any cars with big alternators and a single v-belt for a reason. Probably because making them tight enough to handle the load meant eating water pump bearings.
Sept belts are bigger, and designed better so they last much longer, and they can take a much bigger load.
Tom

 

[Bartonatl]

I have a stock 302 and went SERP with an electric fan. I can change that belt in less than five minutes, but doubt I will ever need to.

 

[nvrstuk]

X2 what SOCALTOM said. Stock alt. leave it alone. Updating alternator amperage you will need to upgrade to serp. IMO the "look" of the serp is UGLY. PS and tensioners sit up high. Tensioner by distributor also creates an issue if you run a serp belt setup with a "stock" style vacuum advance distributor (at least for the 5.8). You have about 3degrees of timing adjustment for your distributor because the vacuum can hits everything... My distributor is now mechanical advance only. Vacuum can is gone.

 

[Oatmeal]

I like my v-belt for the simple reason that if you say, seize up your p/s pump (that's never happened to anybody?), you could cut the belt and still have your water pump/alternator working to get you home or at least off the trail.

I used to carry an emergency "cut to fit" belt (came with a clip to splice together) so even if you lost an alternator bearing, you could make a really short belt to run the water pump......can't do that with a serpentine

Just my preference, though.

Hans

 

[chuck]

With a S-belt you should always have the right tension, it should never squeal or slip, 1 belt does all better and you should never have to replace a belt.And you should be able to change ti with a tire iron. I type "should" because I have been dealing with a customer who's belt squeals but I can't figure why. The problem I find most is the belt needs to align and will fray if it is not.