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TR2/3/3A Just removed the 3A front apron

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Use a fan belt that has cogs on it. Check Gates - mine I believe is a Gates 985. They are thinner in the vertical height and are more flexible. Therefore you can fit them on without any trouble and they flex around the pulleys. Mine has been on since I snapped the last one (a heavy original style) back in 1993 and I've driven 81,000 miles since then with this cogged belt. I was on the highway 300 miles from home when it broke and it took me less than 5 minutes at the side of the road to put on my spare belt, the new cogged one. The old rigid ones are a pain to put on - too rigid, too wide and too high to fit them around things you can't see down there and they are too stiff to flex around the pulleys. They want to stay straight and so they break after about 5,000 miles. It's time for me to make another change because I can't get any more adjustment on the pulley on the front of the generator. The belt seems to have stretched. But I really think the "V" side-walls have worn, so the belt is no longer a s wide as it was when new, therefore it's sitting deeper in the pulley grooves.

Don't tighten the belt too tightly, no matter which type you have. Tighter means it'll break sooner and the bearings in your water pump and generator will go on you. And your water pump will start to leak too. It needs to be just tight enough so that it doesn't slip with that squealing slipping sound when you accelerate.
 
Today I removed the bumper supports, radiator shield, electric fan, radiator, fan belt, front pulley, tie-rods, idler, center-link. After trying the prying method on the linkpins, I used a little MAPP gas and they pins popped right out (lucky I guess). I then pressed them out of the center link.

So here's what I came up with:

- Replace radiator with my spare which looks much better but will get it checked.
- New tie rod ends ordered for both sides inner & outer
- New silent blocs, original rubber type over bronze to save $$.
- New timing chain tensioner, gasket & front seal although nothing was leaking and the tensioner was still in one piece.
- Install kevlar lower & intermediate hoses from off the shelf with new clamps and new return pipe. I think my lower hose was from a Ford or something and the pipe was from plumbing supply!
- Install the TR250 fan.
- New s.s. stator tube from Mark Macy. My wife will like the blinker turning all by itself, like magic!
- Blast & powder coat all removed suspension pieces, bumper supports, fan pulley, timing cover, etc.
- Change steering box fluid, finish degreasing, paint, set toe.
- New front apron bolts, add missing upper cross brace, remount electric (pusher) fan, refit radiator duct.
- Make new headlight harness and wire in relays.
 
Geez Don, you only got 81,000 miles from that Gates belt before it broke? Man, their QC is going down the drain these days...

That is truly unbelievable. I used to use their products exclusively at the dealerships where I worked. They were always the best at that time and i guess, still are.
 
Paul - It's still not broken. I've taken it off, still in one piece, because it has narrowed in width and this makes it sit lower in the "V" groove of the pulleys, therefore I had to make the adjustment on the belt tension by moving out the generator. I even thought of making the slot longer in the generator bracket bar to continue using that belt, but, as it is now, the body of the generator is almost touching the inner fender.
 
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