Problem Changing Serpentine Belt

[phillthefish]

I have encountered a problem when attempting to change the serpentine belt on my 2002 4.0 V6 XLT that I connot find any mention of previously in this forum.

I followed the conventional procedure of using a breaker bar (18" long) in the tensioner to swing its pulley and release tension when removing the old belt. I've threaded the new belt around the pulley's per the chart in the engine bay. However, with the tensioner pulley swung as far as it will go there is still not enough slack for me to get the belt over the final pulley ... in fact it only reaches the center of the pulley, about 2" short of the pulley's rim. I called a friend over to pull on the breaker bar so I can use both hands to try and stretch the belt over the pulley ... but the belt is still at least 1.5" short of the pulley's rim.

I've now rechecked that the pulley is treaded correctly over the other pulleys per the chart in the engine bay. I have also checked the Ford parts website to ensure that I was sold the correct part (the part number of my belt matches the part number on Ford's website).

The only anomoly I can find is that the marking on the new belt is 4L2E-8620-EA and the marking on the old belt is 1L2E-8620-AB ... but neither of these numbers are anything like the part number on the packaging of the new belt so I don't know if the difference in markings is relevant. :scratch:

Has anyone else ever experienced this problem ?
Any tips from the pro's ?

 

[GoneExploring]

the only thing i can recommend is check and recheck that the belt is sitting completely in the grooves of all the other pulleys and make sure that its not twisted also make sure the bolt is tight and that the tensioner is in the right place other than that go back to the auto parts store and ask for another belt might be a manufacturer defect or something like that

 

[Merc02]

.

 

[muzzymaniac]

Hold the new belt up to the old one and compare. the new one should only be slightly smaller than the old one.

 

[BigRondo]

Maybe a stupid question but did you compare the 2 belts to make sure they are the same size?

 

[97 EB Mike]

Someone sold you the wrong belt. Lengths break down like this:
Ford Part # 4L2E-8620-EA (Gates pn K060854) - 85.892"
Ford Part # 1L2E-8620-AB (Gates pn K060858) - 86.35"

Could be that they invoiced the right one and gave you the wrong one, or just made a mistake on counter.

 

[phillthefish]

Someone sold you the wrong belt. Lengths break down like this:
Ford Part # 4L2E-8620-EA (Gates pn K060854) - 85.892"
Ford Part # 1L2E-8620-AB (Gates pn K060858) - 86.35"

Could be that they invoiced the right one and gave you the wrong one, or just made a mistake on counter.

Thanks. When I checked the Ford parts website to ensure that I was sold the correct part it states the correct part number for my VIN is JK6-861-BA ... that is the part number that is on the packaging for the belt marked 4L2E-8620-EA. In other words, the Ford website indicates that they sold me the correct part for my VIN. However, the belt marked 1L2E-8620-AB is what has actually been on my vehicle since I purchased it (purchased at 60,000 miles so guessing this was the original serpentine).

So it appears that the Ford website data for my VIN is not correct !!!!