Belt Tensioner Snapped Off!

From: Kyle Kozubal (grndak4x4@home.com)
Date: Sat May 05 2001 - 19:58:37 EDT


Friday night after work my father and I hop in my truck to drive 2 1/2 hours
and stay in Indianapolis, Speedway actually. We ran a 13mile 'Indy 500 Mini
Marathon' this morning. Truck ran simply awesome all the way down, and I was
able to get 195 miles on a half a tank, going 70-75. So after the race today
we get back in a start the trek home. We drive about 30 minutes and then
pull off to get some gas and some more fluids in us(it was a warm day
running!). When driving out of the gas station, in the middle of nowhere
Indiana, we get about 100yards and hear this loud BANG!! come from under the
hood and I have no power steering and the battery gauge goes to like 8
volts. I pull over and shut the truck off. Turns out the serpentine belt
tensioner gave out. The threaded bolt when is mounted to the ignition coil
mount snapped off. I walked back and picked up the part which was laying the
road. The plastic pulley have road rash on it and was messed up too. Luckily
the belt was fine and there was no other damage. The tensioner could have
easily flown into the radiator, or even taken out the lower radiator hose.
So I call my local Dodge dealer on my cell(bad when you know the parts dept
number by heart isnt it?) and have them hold one for me. Next call is to my
girlfriend to pick it up and drive it down 2 hours to us at this gas
station. She is so wonderful. Get this, for the tensioner, pulley, and
mounting bracket(all sold together) is $104!! What was I supposed to
do......I had to pay it.......after waiting 3 hours for her........it took a
hole 5 minutes to put the new one on and we were off. What a day! Just odd
to me that the main mounting bolt, which is really thick, just snapped. Oh
well....
Kyle
93 Dakota 4x4 V6



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