Sloerolla

Hey all. I have a question.. I am a noob.. I go in to buy a serpentine belt, they offer two sizes. Turns out the smaller size is for a right hand drive machine... cool. I have a correct side drive machine, luckily I get the longer belt.. doimg the cooling system flych amd fixing what aint broke my buddy orders online some hoses and a belt I plan to keep as a spare... he comes back with the shorter belt but we do not realize this until we are trying to put it on and its too short it seems... re-routed it seems to actually work .. but is obviously routed differently than the original... it is taken off and compared to the original... voila.. ywo different sizes... one matching the original in size is installed routed the same .. questuon is... can the shorter belt really be utilized? with creative routing? any gurus know for sho??

4.3L XJ

I would suspect the change in routing is at the water pump. Use the longer one because I think the shorter belt will run the water pump backwards, and it will circulate coolant poorly

RocketMouse

Yes... definitely go with the right one for your Jeep. Otherwise you're in for a world of not so fun times. And possibly a lot of damage.

Sloerolla

run the pump backwards... aye!! didn't really consider that. thanks!!

Sloerolla

And thanks for the reply!

RocketMouse

yeah.. it would cause the impeller to turn the wrong direction causing the coolant to not flow correctly. That would be a bad thing.

Bugout4x4

I shared a story about that here one time. The one and only local Napa computer was applying big block Chevy water pump numbers to everyone in town which were actually made for reverse rotation marine engines in twin engine boats. Took a bit, but someone finally made a connection and figured out why all the big blocks were overheating after they installed a new water pump. lol