Spilled Coolant on New Belts (1 Viewer)

[alphaeighteen]

I have some newish belts on my 3FE ( approx 3000 miles ). My radiator didn't have a fan shroud so I went to put one on but had to remove the top rad hose in order to do so. I'm pretty dumb so when I got the hose off coolant started rushing out everywher eincluding onto my belts.
Now the engine is squeaking when it's running.

Do I have to replace the belts or is there something I can do to salvage it?
Don't really want to replace the belts since I just replaced them and they are fairly new.

Thanks!

 

[Rusty Marlin]

Hose them off with water.
If it really bothers you, take them off and scrub them with dish soap and water in a bucket.
I just hose mine off though, been working fine for me for 30 years or so....EF! I'm getting old.

 

[alphaeighteen]

Hose them off with water.
If it really bothers you, take them off and scrub them with dish soap and water in a bucket.
I just hose mine off though, been working fine for me for 30 years or so....EF! I'm getting old.

Awesome, I'll try it!

 

[Kernal]

Check belt tension??

 

[alphaeighteen]

Check belt tension??

Belt tension is good! Although it wasn't squealing before and I didn't change belt tension so it shouldn't have affected it?

 

[Marco Lau]

hose it off with water and use belt dressing spray

 

[gummycarbs]

Belt tension is good!

Unless you used a belt tension gauge, I bet it's not. After finally using one, I realized that I'd been under-tensioning v-belts my entire life.

 

[Kernal]

As mentioned above, you could wash the belts with dish soap but by now the coolant is mostly gone (or absorbed somewhat). Do not use solvents or straight Purple Power/Simple Green type cleaners, those can damage rubber.

Are the belts OEM or aftermarket?

 

[leonard_nemoy]

In the past I have held a bar of soap up against the belts for a few seconds while they were running and then proceeded to wash them off with a hose. Kind of scary but it has always worked for me.

 

[alphaeighteen]

As mentioned above, you could wash the belts with dish soap but by now the coolant is mostly gone (or absorbed somewhat). Do not use solvents or straight Purple Power/Simple Green type cleaners, those can damage rubber.

Are the belts OEM or aftermarket?

Belts are OEM, but yea the coolant is mostly gone or absorbed now but I'll try washing them down and see what happens

 

[Marco Lau]

how did you manage to install the fan shroud without removing the battery and tray?

 

[alphaeighteen]

how did you manage to install the fan shroud without removing the battery and tray?

I removed the fan/clutch and slid it in vertically then rotated it. It slid in pretty easily but I did have to play some Tetris with fan and fan clutch and the shroud. Took me about 30 minutes to fanagle it in there.

 

[Marco Lau]

I removed the fan/clutch and slid it in vertically then rotated it. It slid in pretty easily but I did have to play some Tetris with fan and fan clutch and the shroud. Took me about 30 minutes to fanagle it in there.

good idea. I need to replace mine....