DODGE CARAVAN ENGINE BELT

I presume you have a service manual, though I may include brief pointers from it to make this advice more cohesive.

Some owners have had difficulty with the engine accessory drive belt popping off in heavy rain or snow, with the Chrysler 3.3/3.8 litre engine. The one vehicle I examined after it happened again showed noticeable but not severe uneveness of wear across the belt, whereas my vehicle does not and has never had the belt come off.

The Gates belt Technical Handbook has information on checking pulley alignment to prevent that. (The handbook is described in the belt catalogue. Gates' web site has a Timing Belt Replacement Manual with CD - replacement tips and belt p/ns, expect a U$35. price tag. Gates' web site also shows a laser alignment tool (p/n 91006 c/w glasses) that sits on one pulley and points at another. Refer to the Gates tool brochure for the laser and tensioner tools.
And it promotes tensioner designs to avoid binding. (I've been suspicious of mine, when the installed belt was slightly long and had less surface area due to cross-grooves (perhaps designed to reduce effect of water), and when it stuck partly retracted while reinstalling the belt. On removal to replace the alternator (see that page) I purchased a new one, finding the old one to not fully extend (position of the mechanism relative to notch in housing, and the pointer).)

One recommendation to avoid belt coming off is to ensure there is a splash shield below the lowest pulley.
You'll want a good tensioner tool for changing the belt - access is very tight and you need a long lever to apply torque to relieve tension. (A non-ratchet 3/8 driver bar with tube slipped over it and a short 15 mm 12-point socket - 3/8 drive is usually shorter - may work. Some tool kits sold for such work have a short bar extender so it fits under the computer which projects from the firewall, with the long bar coming off it at an angle, to give more travel while still providing length for leverage - but one popular kit would need a 1/2" socket on the tensioner, but that would be too long to fit between the tensioner and structure! Some kits have shorter sockets, useful on the Caravan with 3.3L engine. I am leaning toward a simple non-ratchet socket bar, short socket, and piece of pipe (either short and slideable or long and bent to clear the computer).

I recommend slipping the belt on the forward idler pulley as the final step in installation, because the driven pulleys have a lip on their edge and grooves, which makes it far more difficult to install a tight belt, and because the newer plastic tensioner pulley does not have the generously rounded edge of the metal idler pulleys. You can force the belt onto the metal idler pulley.

© Keith Sketchley Page version 2008.02.11 (1245PST)

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