# Quick 9a Serpentine Belt Replacement



## HMF (Oct 30, 2016)

You need a belt one inch wide or slightly less. A six rib serpentine belt happens to be 7/8" wide. Perfect.  48" plus another six inches or so for the scarf joint was needed so one about 5 feet long was selected.

The belt (wince) was cut. Then practice skiving the ends. A table belt sander was used. It worked great on the first try so I cut it to length and prepared it for gluing.

Loctite "Glue for all plastics" for gluing teflon was used. Use plenty of the activator on both sides, going over it several times. After letting the activator sit for the recommended time, apply a generous amount of glue to one side, put the ends together as straight as possible and quickly clamp it up.

After letting it sit for 1/2 hour, try it out. Leave the old belt in place but push it out of the way. Leave it there for a few days just to be on the safe side. Put the belt with the ribs in as that side is of grippier material and besides, that's the way it is supposed to run.

It runs very quietly with no noise. There is the slightest periodic bump sound only on the highest speed cone pulley but no vibration that can be felt at all. On the other speeds there is no trace of the joint going over the pulleys.

This is a very easy project and cost me about $23 US for the new belt and a small amount of the glue, maybe $2 worth. It took all of 30 minutes.

Belt ends ready for gluing:




Glued and setting:




The inside of the scarf joint:




The outside of the joint:


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## rwm (Oct 30, 2016)

Looks like it works well. Thanks for showing this. What do you think about stitching (lacing?) the joint where the grooves are for extra strength? If you use thin lacing and stay in the grooves it should not contact the pulley at all.
Robert


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## HMF (Oct 30, 2016)

Being a worrier, I would stitch too if I could without weakening the joint.
I think eventually, the skived joints will fail. They should last a while though.

There are also files in the downloads section on methods:

http://www.hobby-machinist.com/resources/how-to-do-the-serpentine-belt-gluing-pdf.1009/
http://www.hobby-machinist.com/resources/sb-how-to-do-the-serpentine-belt-conversion_2-pdf.1434/


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## rwm (Oct 30, 2016)

I had a thought about lacing this: If you take the stitch through the grove from inside to outside, then you could cross over to the next groove on the outside of the belt. In this way you could use a continuous running stitch without ever contacting the pulley. Might be better than the original!
Robert


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## woodtickgreg (Oct 30, 2016)

I stiched mine and it's going on 3 years now I think? No signs of wear or coming apart. I used metal picture frame hanger wire. It's braided and very strong, a dot of solder keeps it secured.


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## rwm (Oct 30, 2016)

How about some Kevlar thread??? 3 bucks on eBay!
R


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## woodtickgreg (Oct 30, 2016)

rwm said:


> How about some Kevlar thread??? 3 bucks on eBay!
> R


I have heard that works good too!


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