The belt on my 3.8 is super tight. The tensioner is down to the position you would put it at to normally take the belt off.

I wonder if someone oversized a pulley as a mod. (The car still has working A/C)

Has anyone ever heard of doing that on a 4th gen, and if so, which pulley is it normally done too?

 

usually a pulley change it to a supercharger to increase boost in the motor. im taking you dont have a supercharger so i dont think thats the problem. it would sound like you have a belt thats a little to small but it your tensioner is almost pulled down then i dont know whats going on.

 

You sure you're yanking the tensioner as far as it will go? If someone oversized a single pulley for performance reasons, it would be the alternator to slow it down and reduce drag. But I don't know that you'd get away with using the same belt. Try slipping the belt off one of the smooth pulleys first.

 

any numbers on the belt? what length is it. i am seeing like 94.5 for the 3.8

 

I'm switcing it out with a non cracked one on Saturday. I will see if the two are the same size.

 

If the old belt is trashed, getting it off is real easy using metal cutting shears.

 

I wouldnt cut it. I always save my old one just in case. been with a group of car guys and a guy lost a belt on a 235 inline 6 and didnt have a spare so shoe strings were used to get it to a parts house.

 

easier to measuer that way.

 

I had a talk with my car Sergio (Pronounced Surge-eo) and explained that he had to loose a few pounds so his belt wouldn't be so tight.

I also swapped out the belt tensioner. Kudos to the guy who told me I had to get a Dorman kit to replace the elbows while I was at it. Knowing that in advance helped me a lot.

Turned out the old belt and the new belt were the same size. My tensioner had a stripped out "loosening bolt". Since It never locked against anything I could never get enough torque to loosen the belt. (making me think it was in the fully loosed position) It kinda sucks because the tensioner is good, I just needed to buy a reverse bolt and nut and a big washer.