Please tell me you think a belt will fix this.
Is slightly off track. I wonder if the belt has really stretched out causing this issue?
Belt seems to be thinner from wear as well.
I'm really hoping a new belt will solve this issue.
If it is the tension-er eek!
Tension-er has a water coolant pipe, which means shop time.

What made you look at it? Is there a problem?

I don't think that'* from stretching, unless the tensioner has gone bad.

How many miles on the belt?

What manufacturer is the belt?

Does the belt seem to have normal tension?

One thing I've found useful with older tensioners is to take the belt off and exercise the tensioner by sweeping through it'* whole range of travel a few times. This will also give a good idea of whether the tensioner feels like it is working right or not.

The belt is so thin now. I can twist the belt around vertically. The last (gator back) belt change was 10 years ago with only 45k miles.
The new K060935 continental belt is 3 times thicker approximately & hopefully fixes the issue.
If I remember correctly, a wooden block with floor jack has to be raised to remove a lower engine frame bolt, without damaging the oil pan.
Any install instructions would be helpful.

You should be OK without needing to drop it.

The flat side doesn't really drive anything with a high load, so I suspect it is just a thin backing on the belt, maybe slightly thinner than new due to slight wear and stretching. The groove side doesn't really look worn too much either, the cool thing about Gatorbacks is you can kind of tell by how deep the groove* are between the "gum*" between the teeth. If the gums get really high over the grooves then you know it has worn a bunch.



(I don't know what Goodyear calls these parts, except the teeth, so this is what I'e decided to call them.

I was going to accuse that belt of being a Gatorback but I didn't know if other brands had done that too.

Mileage or not, ten years is about my limit on a daily driver'* belt. It'* not worth stretching (no pun intended) that interval much longer.

The bearing on that idler pulley might be going out too. Replace it while you're there for good measure. They're inexpensive. I've seen them ride at a little bit of an angle as the bearing gets worn.

I've never used a jack for this. If it is like mine, the lower leg of the mount needs to be removed to allow the belt to be removed and installed. The lower leg is actually a sleeve around a stud that is threaded on both ends. The stud has a Torx/star tip on its passenger-side end to hold onto while removing the nut and to screw it in and out. Think kind of like how struts have a hex or Torx end on the shaft to hang onto while installing and removing. Usually, I've had good luck getting the stud out without having to use a reverse-star socket on it.

In the following picture . . .


. . . :

1. Remove the nut. If the stud comes unscrewed with the nut, all the better.

2. Remove the stud if it didn't come out with the nut in Step 1.

3. Remove the sleeve. Usually I can wiggle this around a bit and it comes out. The sleeve is heavy and will happily bash your face if you are doing this from underneath.

4. Replace belt.

5. Reinstall sleeve. This part is a little tricky. The other two legs of the mount are trying to hold the mount in the same position, so the sleeve doesn't want to go in because it is an exact fit. With a little influence, and sometimes a few light taps with the handle of a screwdriver, it will suddenly decide it wants to live where it has been all this time.

6. If the stud came out with the nut back in Step 1, grip the stud in the center (on the non-threaded part) with a vice and unscrew the nut approximately two turns.

7. Reinstall the stud. Maybe put a little WD-40 (or the like) on the engine block end'* threads, this to make it screw in the block with less friction than is holding the nut in place on the other end (if it stayed with the stud in Step 1). When it is lined up with the hole on the driver'* side end of the sleeve, it is probably lined up on the engine side as well. Sometimes it is necessary to wiggle the sleeve around a bit to get the stud to thread into the block. If the nut came with the stud in Step 1, make sure the nut and stud are turning 1:1 with each other on the way in. When the stud is bottomed out in the block, it will stop turning and the nut will tighten on the mount.

8. If the nut came off separately, install it and tighten it now.

Comments:

I've never had to loosen the other motor mount bolts to do this, although it is recommended in a couple of different manuals that I've read.

Don't grab the Torx/star end of the stud with pliers etc. It might work, and might not, but either way will mess up the Torx/star end so that you can't put a socket on it later. Then you're stuck screwing it in a few degrees at a time with pliers if it is being cooperative.

I always do this from the top. I've heard of folks doing this from underneath, but I've never seen the need to try this.

I can see nothing wrong with your belt. Granted I can't see it all but on belts that need replacing you will see several cracks every inch and I see none.

CC Thanks for the very helpful instructions & diagram. I could not find that diagram in the FSM books.

The Tensioner is bad.
Gates # 38152 has finally arrived complete with coolant elbow.
Anyone have the actual install instructions?
I sure hope that I do not have to remove the Dorman intake manifold.

No, you don't have to remove the intake for that:



It looks worse than it is. Make sure the ports where the coolant lines engage are clear of all debris, and lube the O-rings with some antifreeze. Wiggle it around a bunch as you are installing so the O-rings don't try to roll out of position. I've had mine off and back on again and it'* not bad.