Freinds, what sort of wizardry tool is required to replace the a.c. belt?
it's a 14 with 5.3.
The rear of the crank pully is the position for the belt.
I am actually asking this question for my car as well with a 6.0.


Also, I order the bearings for idler pullys. Works great most of them have the same size bearing regardless of vehicle brand.
Anyone try squeezing one into the tensioner pully?
They look molded in.

Thank You in advance

 

My 2015 idler and tensioner pulleys were plastic. So I just bought the whole thing and got one with metal pulleys.

Your have a stretch belt right? Mine does. I cut the old one off and just used finger pressure to get the belt on while turning the crank with a ratchet. I bought a tool and it didn't work. Maybe there is a different style that would fit the harmonic balancer? I'd say just try doing it by hand. Watch out for the wires/sensor behind the crank pulley.

This is the tool I got that DID NOT work

 

Same tool I purchased that did not work.
I amazoned another gizmoe for giving it another try. (For deep pullies yada)
Neither belt looks that bad but at over 100,000 for the two I need to change, and they are stock belts.


​​Another question, for the steel idler I found and just ordered the bearings.
Since just having the bearing that most of our vehicles need, I have never had to wait for a replacement.

Has anyone tried removing the bearing from one of the polymer tensioner or idlers?
I know hammering it out just destroyed the polymer.
I have that tensioner pulley coming but I am going to try squeezing one out.

 

I used a tool like this and it worked alright. I was able to make it work but it was still a pain. The one I bought is no longer available but most of them seem to me clones of each other.

You do have to remove the sensor behind the pulley before you start but it's no big deal.

I'm not a fan of stretch belts. I wish they would have sued a tensioner.

 

on my 2015 6.0l I tried to remove the sensor and wiring and it appeared to need the crank pulley to come off first to get it off. With that and my tool not working I tried just working hand pressure on the belt. Does your engine have the variable cam timing?

 

I believe it does. It's a 2011 5.3 so it should be the same as the OPs van.

For the sensor I removed one or two 10mm bolts that held the bracket and the whole thing was able to move out of the way just enough without having to unplug it.

 

Charm only goes up to 2013 and sometimes there are slight changes.

https://charm.li/Chevrolet/2013/Expr...20Replacement/

 

Thank you fellows for the great info.
The belt I ordered was the wrong one so as soon as I get the new one, I'll try again.
After further consideration the original tool posted up the page may work.