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hpr_transcripts/hpr1994.txt

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+Episode: 1994
+Title: HPR1994: Truck Repair: Serpentine Belt Replacement
+Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1994/hpr1994.mp3
+Transcribed: 2025-10-18 13:00:32
+
+---
+
+This is HPR Episode 1994 entitled Truck Repair, Serpentine Belt Replacement.
+It is hosted by John Culp and is about 61 minutes long.
+The summary is, listen and replace the Serpentine Belt, idler bullet and belt tensioner in my truck.
+This episode of HPR is brought to you by AnanasThost.com.
+Get 15% discount on all shared hosting with the offer code HPR15, that's HPR15.
+Better web hosting that's honest and fair at AnanasThost.com.
+Okay y'all, this is John Culp and lefty at Louisiana and I'm starting a little project
+right now.
+What I need to do is replace the Serpentine Belt, the idler pulley and the belt tensioner
+on my pickup truck and the reason I'm doing this is because, not so much because I noticed
+that there was excessive wear on the belt, although the mechanic said it looks like it was
+a little bit worn, but because there's a really bad high pitched sound, like, wee wee wee
+wee wee.
+That's the truck so you can hear it.
+I'm going to start it up the truck and hear it now wee wee wee wee wee wee wee wee wee.
+See, it's here that chirping sound that's really bad, I don't want to let it go very
+long because I want the engine parts to be cool while I'm working on it so I don't
+burn my hands on stuff, but anyway, so that's the sound I'm trying to fix.
+And I've got what appear to be, I've got the parts, I've got the new parts, I'm going
+to put a new belt, a new belt tensioner and a new idler pulley and one of the parts
+concerns me a little bit, it's the belt tensioner is got a different attachment than what
+they show on the video and it concerns me a little bit so I want to see how that plays
+out.
+What I've got to do is get the belt off first by releasing the tension on the belt tensioner
+so that I can actually move the belt and you got to get it out from behind the fan and
+all this kind of stuff.
+I've watched a video twice showing how it's done so we will see if I can do it.
+I might actually have to swap out the mounting hardware on the new belt tensioner if it turns
+out that if it turns out that I can't get this thing, the thing is the new belt tensioner
+has a different bolt with it's got a star key thing to turn it instead of just using
+a socket and I don't know, I don't have any star keys that are the right size and that
+can put on to go 90 degree angle to it like that so anyway, we'll see, the first step
+is to remove the air intake hose from here, loosen up the thing a little bit and pull
+that off.
+Okay, that's off and now there's another thing to pull it off of over here, I should probably
+be taking pictures but I've got these gloves on, I don't really want to, how does that come
+off?
+Can you just yank it off or is there a little trick here?
+There's a coming up, oh, somebody pulling in my driveway and turning back around, how
+do you come off there?
+I can see that there's some kind of clasp to get, oh there it goes, there it goes,
+right?
+Okay, so we got that off and then move that out of the way a bit and what I want to see
+is, okay, yeah I can see the belt tensioner now, so the next step is to loosen the belt
+tensioner and that relieves the pressure on the belt and to do this, I had to rent a
+tool from AutoZone, I've got a tool rental program where you, I guess you buy the tool
+and then as soon as you're done using it, you bring it back and I give you a refund,
+so it allows you to do some of these jobs that require specialized tools, so this one
+where the guy said it was a 15 millimeter, go on the video said, I think he said it was
+a 15 millimeter, the belt tensioner tool is just a really long slender metal bar that
+fits down in this tight little hole, okay, and did he say that it was, you know what,
+I might need to, I might need to just put a socket on there instead, get that off,
+so the tool comes with the long bar and then it's got various sizes of either wrench,
+like box end wrench heads or sockets to put on there and I started with a 15 millimeter
+socket but I think I need to get that off of there and use, I mean sorry, I started
+with the wrench head and I think I need to put a socket instead but I can't get the
+darn thing off, come off you, there it goes, okay, I'll put that back, try the socket instead,
+okay, it's a very narrow socket to fit in this little spot, okay, so that's too big,
+it must be the 13 millimeter that I need, I'm gonna go on the video, I thought he said 15,
+I've gotten out all the right size tools according to what they said on the video and of course it
+looks like mine are a little bit different, wait that's 16 millimeter, what's that, 13, maybe this is it,
+okay, this one is too small, for a little more time, what is that, 16, this one is 15, okay, 15 is what the guy said,
+whoever used this tool asked put the things back in their own order so I was looking at them,
+okay, there we go, there you are, I think he said to turn clockwise, clockwise,
+leave the tension on the belt, not there it goes, okay, got the belt loose, isn't that cool,
+this first time I've ever done this job, so I'm learning as I go but the, okay, so the belt tensioner
+has a very strong spring apparently and you use this tool to relieve the pressure temporarily so you
+can loosen the belt, so now my next step is to pull the belt off and it goes in a complicated pattern,
+so it's called the serpentine belt, okay, hey, all right well so far so good, I got the belt off,
+hopefully it'll stay up, that was the misses, coming around to get some belt, okay now the belt is
+free of all of the thingies, got to get it to come off around this side of the fan,
+oh isn't this interesting, the fan is kind of delicate so you don't want to,
+I don't want to pull on it too hard or anything,
+yeah, I almost got it, oh my gosh I did it, I got the belt off, sweet, I'm going to inspect it now,
+it doesn't look so bad but I think what I really need in this whole job, the part that's the most
+critical probably is the idler pulley or the belt tensioner, one of those two has, I suspect has
+bearings that are going bad, that one when I spin that it sounds a little bit rough and
+this one for that really spins doesn't it, so I'm spinning the belt tensioner right now
+and it just goes and goes and goes,
+I wonder if you can hear that if I put the microphone down there and I spin it again,
+that to me doesn't sound like the squeaking part but it might be, who knows when it's under load,
+what it's going to sound like, that part really spins and I don't know about the,
+the idler put, I mean the belt tensioner, well let's see,
+I see something down there that concerns me still, the old, the old belt tensioner has the same
+connector thing that the new one does, which is a, it's not exactly a hex bolt but it's a,
+it's like a star bolt, I don't know if I'm going to be able to get that off, I might have to use,
+hey I'm going to see if I can use my hex key to get that off there but I might not be able to,
+I guess the first thing to do is get the idler pulley off and that is what, 15 millimeter,
+let's, let's see, yep, that's pretty tight,
+I might need, I think I'm going to use a longer socket, I mean a ratchet,
+okay, got that,
+so we're ratcheting off the old idler pulley,
+looks like probably that's a, takes a while, we'll get that bolt out of there, doesn't it?
+Let's see if I can get my fingers in there to turn the bolt now, it's a very tight space to work in right
+here,
+almost there I think,
+but I think I can still use this thing,
+I might have to call my buddy Mike to see if he's got the right kind of tool to get the belt
+tensioner off, he does quite a lot of mechanic work, okay, I should probably use my hand now,
+and I bet he's got something I could use for that, I have to give him a call,
+probably means I'll have to stop my recording for a little while, I don't know how early on a
+Sunday morning I want to try to call him, I like when there's not enough room to put my hand in,
+that's nice, okay, there we go, I bought some mechanics gloves at the auto part store too,
+protect my hands, not only for, okay, I got it off, sweet, all right, so I have the idler pulley off,
+and hard to tell really, whether it totally need a replacement or not, but I don't know, it's about a $20 part,
+so whatever, can't hurt,
+let's get up the new one, you know, this does not look the same at all,
+this is much smaller,
+yeah, very curious, I don't know if I want to put this on there, it's like, it's not even the same,
+I might have to make a run to auto zone, see what they say about this, and also ask them about
+the part, okay, so I think I'm gonna pause and come back in a little while,
+okay, all I'm back, I just went to auto zone where I returned the wrong part, they gave me,
+when I bought the part before, they gave me a replacement for the belt tensioner pulley instead of
+the idler pulley, so that's why there was a discrepancy in the size, I took the old one off and
+compared it with the new one, because it was totally the wrong part, so now I've got a new
+idler pulley, and also got the tool that I need to remove the belt tensioner,
+so the belt tensioner in the video that I watched, it was attached by way of a bolt with a,
+like a hex head on it, but somehow in, in my truck, it was a slightly different year of truck,
+so the one in the video was a 2002 and mine is a 2004, and I guess that accounts for the difference,
+mine has a bolt, but it's attached by, I mean, it's turned by a star bit, so I bought a T-50 size star bit,
+which has a, you can put it on a 3-inch ratchet, if I can get the darn thing out of the packaging that
+it came in, shish man, I'm gonna paint in the rear, this is stupid, I can't get the star bit
+tool out of the packaging, I'm not gonna have to go use some different tool to pull this out,
+that is so dumb, I'm gonna get a pair of pliers or something,
+let's see, I'm gonna get a pair of pliers,
+I can't get it out, this is so dumb, I can't get the, so the tool that I just bought is
+held on the shelf by this plastic card that hangs on a little hook, and I can't get the thing out,
+I'm trying to get it out, there it comes, I just broke it off, I broke it,
+I dominated it, yeah, we shall see, I have to drill it out or something, man that is so dumb,
+nice job, out of zone, I'm gonna have to drill this out,
+am I supposed to turn it, I'm gonna hurt myself if I keep trying this,
+okay, I guess I'm gonna have to drill it out,
+yeah, I'm gonna have to drill a hole in it and put a screw down there and then pull it out, I guess,
+man this is stupid, okay, I can get the drill,
+go up, go up to my shed where I can put this in a vice,
+hey, okay, so I think I'm gonna end up being just about right when I watch the video,
+the video shown how to do this job, last about eight minutes, and I was telling my wife,
+since the video lasts eight minutes, I should probably budget about four hours of time,
+and it's not gonna end up being that long, but man it's not far off,
+these jobs always take longer than it seems like they ought to,
+okay, so I'm gonna stick this thing in a vice and drill down into the plastic thing that's holding it,
+and then put a screw into that hole and pull it out by the screw,
+man this is so stupid,
+okay, so there's a pilot hole into which I'm gonna drill a screw,
+let's see if there's one lying around here that I can use,
+maybe that one, now that's a little bit too big, we've got some miscellaneous screws over here,
+well my ingenuity is something else isn't it,
+okay,
+put the screw bit back into the drill,
+okay, and now the screw is in there,
+I'm gonna try to pull it out,
+I'm gonna pull the plastic thing out from there,
+I think it's coming out, yeah, I did it, I did it, I got it out, okay,
+now I can use my tool, what a pain in the rear,
+but wasn't that a clever solution I had, I tell you what, I hope you're able to,
+imagine that in audio, I'm not able to take pictures while I'm doing this,
+but so the way,
+oops, I need to leave, you know, I'm just gonna, hang on a second, I'm gonna leave these tools out
+here in the shed, the way, the tool that I need to use to get the idler pulley off,
+he's held on by that bolt that's got the the star bit thing, and so I bought a star bit where
+the star bit is like welded inside a 3-inch drive socket, and to display this in the store,
+they had this piece of plastic shoved down inside the 3-inch hole where your ratchet goes,
+and it was so tight that I couldn't pull it out, and when I tried to pull it out with a pair of
+pliers, it broke off leaving the plastic stuffed all the way down in there, so what I did was drill a
+hole through that plastic, the stuffed in the hole, put a screw down in there nice and tight,
+and then pulled it out using the screw, and all right, now let's have a see if I can get the old
+idler pulley off, or old belt tensioner, sorry, keep getting these terms all mixed up, all right,
+that is attached,
+oh boy, there's not much room to work in here is there,
+not much room to work at all, I don't know if I'm going to be able to get to it, dang now,
+I might have to take the fan off, I don't want to have to do that, do not want to have to take the
+fan off, first of all, I don't know how, and second it'll be a pain in the rear,
+let's see if this thing might be the same tool, we'll get the job done here, okay, I'm going to use
+the serpentine belt tool to see if that'll give me just enough space, aha, there we go,
+okay, now I'll have to use this tool the whole time to get that thing off of there, but I've gotten
+the bolt loose, and I would really, really like to use my ratchet right now, let's see if I can
+get the smaller ratchet to fit down in there, oopsie, darn, that one's still going to be too fat,
+isn't it, yeah that's even better than this one, Welp, I'm going to reach down in there with my hand,
+put that on there, so I'm putting the star bit down in here just using my hand to try to unscrew the
+bolt, that's going to be difficult to get out, I need to put on my gloves, so I'll scratch my hands all
+up, all right, let's see if I can get this thing out, that will not work, hmm, let's try one more time here,
+this tool just doesn't fit in this little narrow spot,
+there it goes, is that the bolt, hmm, this is difficult,
+I really might have to take the fan off, I don't want to do that, okay let's try something else,
+I guess I'll just go back to the belt removal tool, so that's the only one that fits down in there,
+I'm going to take a wala, what can I talk about while I'm doing this,
+this is the kind of thing that I could not have done before I got the second vehicle,
+so I mean this is the second vehicle and it's kind of an older one so the wife doesn't really mind me
+trying to fix stuff myself, but the reason this wouldn't work if this were the only cars because
+I wouldn't have had another car to go get the party, and that would have been kind of a problem,
+this is very tedious, this is going to get harder and harder as the bolt comes out to,
+because as the bolt comes out there's less and less space to work with,
+I wonder how long it's going to be before I can reach with my hand and get it,
+boy that's really no more space to work with there,
+I'm going to come around here and try to use my hand,
+that's not happening, how do I get the fan off I wonder,
+is it just a matter of taking those four bolts off of there,
+maybe I can just loosen those bolts a little bit and give me just enough wiggle room,
+let's see,
+where is my eight millimeter socket, I bet that's the one that I need for that,
+that is 13 millimeter, over there it is, let's see,
+okay, oh forgot sake, nope I can't get that in there either, everything is so tight right there,
+that it's impossible to get wrenches down in there, I just need a little bit more space,
+I'm going to try one more time by putting this thing in there and using my hand,
+I'd love to know how the real mechanics do this,
+okay, I may have to use a wrench or something,
+hmm what'd you make for lunch, David, wow it's beautiful, it is beautiful,
+sadly I can't eat it right now,
+I don't know what size this is going to be, so I'm just going to get
+a few of them, actually I'm going to take the whole tool kit outside,
+my daughter has made something involving couscous and, hey that's good,
+I just fell on the bottom, that's nice, I like that, and stuff just falls down, it's good,
+okay that's pretty tight, I'm going to put on my other glove, so don't hurt myself,
+I'm going to try to loosen the fan a little bit, give a little more wiggle room,
+that makes a nice sound,
+I'll never get those bolts back in there if they come all the way out, I better be careful here,
+okay if I've got enough space now,
+what I'm doing, I'm loosening the bolts to hold the fan onto this little mounting thing,
+hoping that it'll give me just enough extra wiggle room where I can get my wrench down in there,
+okay I wonder if this, I'm determined to get this thing done here now, what do I need,
+oh this thing,
+but that is just too tight, how do they do it, how do they get a wrench down in there,
+maybe they do take the fan all the way off, oh I sure don't want to,
+I worry about getting it back on if I do that,
+I don't want to do anything, the belt to be a whole lot easier to get on without the fan in place,
+so we will see, I mean, I'll take it all the way off just because,
+there's one bolt, I think I'm just going to take it off,
+two bolts, I hope this actually, I hope taking these little bolts off actually does release the fan,
+if it doesn't ban, I don't know what I'm going to do, I should probably get my little magnetic parts
+bolt from my bike where it can bring it around here, so I don't lose any of these little parts,
+and one more, hey baby, I can't eat right now baby, I'm going to finish this first,
+but I promise I'm looking forward to enjoying what you made,
+oopsie, I dropped one,
+oh see where did it go, there it is, okay well the fan did not come all the way off,
+maybe that's a good thing, but I think it moved just enough where I can get my wrench down there,
+nice and comfy, yeah let's see, oh yeah, there we go,
+well I don't know if I can get the fan back on, but I know I'll get the belt tensioner off,
+but it's tend to be a lot longer, it looks like they're going to be,
+it's coming out,
+it's got to be about out by now, come on now,
+the belt tensioner is very loose, let me see if the bolt is actually out, okay got it,
+if I can maneuver it out of here without breaking anything,
+I've got the old one out, now I'm going to put the new one in,
+almost dropped it, it is hard to get the hands down in there to do this,
+I'm trying to hold this still but of course it's got a pulley on there and that keeps moving,
+how do you go, there go ahead babe,
+how's that, how it goes, I think that's how it goes, that's just matter of getting my hand down
+in there to tighten the thing up,
+so we'll try the wrench again,
+okay taking the bolt down now,
+I'm glad I bought these gloves, I've probably already gotten like ten little nicks and
+cuts from scraping my hand against parts in the engine.
+Okay, the bolt is nearly in now.
+A little ways longer.
+I'm not sure how to put, oh I can do that, I was wondering how I'm going to get the
+torque wrench in there with this bit, but I think I can do that. I'm supposed to torque it
+down to 30 foot-pounds, 25 or 30 foot-pounds, something like that. Okay, now we're getting tight.
+Okay, that's very tight. Let me torque it with the torque wrench. Uh-oh, I hate this, so now my problem is
+the torque wrench gauge is on the other side. I have to come around here to read it.
+That's probably enough.
+Hey, Philip, is that you? My god. I'm senior new. Man, that is a badass car.
+Oh, thank you. Awesome. It's a challenge. Yeah, that is cool looking. I bought it August 1st, 2015.
+Nice, man. Should I add it on a four month mask and my back in through?
+See, that's right. I bought it. We had only one car for the longest time. I finally this past summer
+bought a truck. It's the 04 Ranger. 4,300. I'm trying to replace the belt and the idler pulley
+and tensioner and stuff. It's cool. It's got nearly 100,000 miles on it right now. I paid 4,300 bucks,
+so my budget, according to the wife, was $5,000 to get. Pretty much, but this allows me
+to try and fix some stuff myself because if I try to fix stuff on this and I broke the only car
+we got, I've been big trouble. It's like a computer man. I don't understand it at all.
+It took a quarter to five minutes just to explain everything and it took months and then
+I was like, just tell me how that worked out. There you go.
+Okay, so yeah, the guy that I was just talking to there is the grandson of my next-door neighbor.
+I hadn't seen him in quite a long time. I want to say eight or ten years or something,
+but he used to come, he used to see him all the time. Okay, so now I'm going to put in the new
+idler pulley. That was the belt tensioner that I just installed using that crazy thing that,
+whoopsie, don't fall out now. And this is the idler pulley.
+All right, I've got to get that down. Good seeing you too. Take care.
+Okay, there's a lot of space to do this either. There we go. It's all about getting the right angle
+with your hand so that you can tighten these things down.
+Okay, now I need a socket.
+Yeah, there we go.
+So I'm going to seam right here.
+Back that off a little bit. Oh, there we go.
+It was not centered quite right. It was in danger of messing up the bearings if I kept on
+tightening with it like that. This is much easier to get to than the belt tensioner.
+All right, now let's check the torque on that one.
+It's not too tight. I've got 20 foot pounds.
+Okay, there we go. Now I've got to get the fan reattached.
+Actually, you know what, I think I'm going to, I think I'm going to thread this belt around
+there before I reattach the fan because it's going to be easier that way.
+One of the hard parts of getting the belt off was getting it around the fan.
+So if I've got the fan loosened up, this is going to be easier.
+Oh yeah, that's much easier. Clever me.
+Okay, get on down there.
+I wonder why I don't just hire a mechanic to do this.
+It's kind of fun. What I don't like about hiring mechanics, well, I like how they do the job
+and I don't have to do it, but what I don't like is having to leave my car there and
+having to make an appointment and get the car there and then get to work because they're not
+going to do it on a Saturday or Sunday. They'll only do it during the week. So then I've got to
+get myself to work after I drop the car off, either by putting my bicycle on the back of the
+car and riding it from there or by some other means. And here, this is kind of fun.
+Well, presuming it turns out all right, it's kind of fun, but then also I don't have to leave my car
+anywhere. Let's see if this can be... I'm sure we'll get in the belt under the bottom of the fan there.
+There we go. Okay. Now, now I can put the fan on.
+I'm sorry, I can't eat right now. I'm neck deep in this job. It looks wonderful.
+I promise I'll eat it very soon as soon as soon as I'm done putting this stuff back together, okay?
+Thank you, hun. My daughter's so proud of the lunch she made. She wants me to eat it right away,
+but I just can't. Okay, so the trick now is going to be kicking out one of the hicks
+to put the... okay, there. To put the little bolts to get the fan back on.
+Okay, I found one. Good, yay, yay. I think it's going to work, yo.
+Okay, so I've got one bolt started. I wish I had a way to hang my super awesome flashlight
+in here so that it could light me up while I'm doing this.
+Once I get the second one in that will provide guidance for all the rest of them.
+There.
+Tricky trying to get these little bolts in there. You can't see very little,
+you can't move your hands. Okay, second one is started. Yes.
+Okay, next one should not be hard to get in now that these two are in,
+tighten that one down a little bit more. Okay, two more to go, and then tighten them down.
+Hmm, it's a lovely day to do this in South Louisiana. It's about 65 degrees and sunny.
+Okay, and one more.
+I wonder how much the mechanical charge me to do this job if they had to take the time.
+I mean, they can do it faster, but still they charge by the hour end by the parts.
+Okay, now I've got all four fan bolts in and hand tightened. Now it's time to tighten them down
+with the wrench or with the spanner, if you will.
+I wonder if I should have waited to put the fan on until I had the belt routed the right way.
+I might decide this was a mistake to put the fan back on at this point.
+Without the fan attached, you definitely have more room to work in there.
+Okay, tighten them down. I'll do the final tightening now and one more.
+Okay, all right, fans back on. Now, time to route the belt.
+There's a little diagram on the top of the truck here when you open the hood showing how the belt
+is supposed to be routed. And so that's what I will follow. Goes around these two.
+Under this one. Over this one.
+And it goes up and around there. Boy, that's going to be hard to get to.
+Okay, here we go.
+Hmm, something is messed up here.
+Okay, this all goes around like this.
+How do you get it around that thing?
+Oh, I see. I see. But still, how do you...
+Gotta go it around there.
+Okay.
+I wonder if I'm going to have to go around the fan again.
+Let's see. I've got to think about this. It'll be fascinating radio.
+Okay, it goes down around that one.
+Oh, I see. I see.
+Yeah.
+It's just really hard to reach, is all.
+Yeah, okay, I see how it has to happen. I just don't know how I'm going to do it.
+Okay.
+Maybe I'll get it off of there first.
+Okay, up and around that.
+This is hilarious. Okay, it has to go down around that one.
+I'll be sure this thing is long enough.
+Ah, there's the rest of it.
+I'd love to see a professional do this.
+I'm sure it'd be a lot quicker.
+Oh, getting there, getting there, getting there.
+Oh, okay, this is not going well.
+I think I put the fan back on too soon.
+Yep, I'm taking the back off.
+This is crazy.
+Crazy, crazy, crazy.
+This isn't going to go out to the next generation.
+All right.
+think I've got everything ready now gonna start it up to see how it sounds well
+that was a pain yo okay here we go all right well engines running go over here
+buy it and see if we hear the squealing sound no I don't hear the squealing
+anymore I think that's it yo let's take a little
+okay let's take a little leap of faith to turn the engine on after that
+because I've never done that kind of thing before I'm backing into my driveway
+here and it seems to work just fine pulling back into the parking place engine
+works break squeak they don't know what's up with that I just replaced the
+break that's not too long ago well I think that's it tensioner idler pulley belt
+all replaced that's it for me y'all I'm ready for some lunch this has been John
+Culp and Lafayette Louisiana for Hacker Public Radio bye you've been listening
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