V8 short drive belt replacement

[Mozambique]

Following on from my 'water pump failure' post below.
So the serpentine belt is showing cracks, so am replacing it while replacing the broken idler pulley.

I have a new short drive belt, the stretch fit one. I offered it up and it looks woefully short. Before I cut the old one off (looks okay. No cracking), and commit myself, has anyone had success with the various stretch belt installers on Amazon? I know about the small mole grip method. The old belt looks okay, so am in two minds as to whether worth bothering with. Mileage is 180k km, and replacement indicated at 240k km

 

[txfromwi]

As long as you purchased the belt from Rover and you were communicating clearly which one you needed it will be ok.
There is never a need to cut anything off.

The tensioner is very easily released.
I used my breaker bar (3/8) with a copper pipe over the handle to release the tension.

Could not find a good routing diagram in the manual. But this might help.

 

[ktm525]

He's talking about the small stretch belt not the longer belt with tensioner. I would replace

 

[djkaosone]

What I've done in several instances was to remove the 3 bolts on the small pulley, wrap the new belt around both pulley, and angle the smaller pulley back into place. It's a bit tricky with the new belt, but doable without any special tool.

 

[Mozambique]

What I've done in several instances was to remove the 3 bolts on the small pulley, wrap the new belt around both pulley, and angle the smaller pulley back into place. It's a bit tricky with the new belt, but doable without any special tool.

You have done that on an LR4?
The new (LR) belt looks too short, plus would worry about cross threading the bolts?

 

[Mozambique]

As long as you purchased the belt from Rover and you were communicating clearly which one you needed it will be ok.
There is never a need to cut anything off.

The tensioner is very easily released.
I used my breaker bar (3/8) with a copper pipe over the handle to release the tension.

Could not find a good routing diagram in the manual. But this might help.

View attachment 23482

Thanks for the diagram. Longer belt replacement no problem. Its the short belt off the crankshaft I am referring to

 

[djkaosone]

You have done that on an LR4?
The new (LR) belt looks too short, plus would worry about cross threading the bolts?

I've done this on my '11 and another '12 LR4 5.0 V8.

If you really want a tool, Lisle 59370 looks promising.

 

[Mozambique]

Hey, thanks.
Yes I did look at that tool.
Ordered a different one. Will see how it goes

 

[Mozambique]

$25 tool off Amazon worked a charm with the stretch belt. It seated it almost correctly, just had to apply some leverage with a large screwdriver against the outer belt edge while continuing to rotate the pulley to fully seat it. Old belt looked fine.

 

[Mozambique]

Got the new idler pulley from the dealer. Now come in plastic instead of metal