Arctic Vette

No special tools: 1/4 drive, 3/8 drive. 9/16 socket, 3 inch ext, 6 inch ext, 8mm allen key, 8mm allen key socket, 4mm allen key, and i think a 5/8 wrench for the lower compressor tensioner to push it up

Car must be jacked at least 4 notches on stands.

First had to remove blower belt, everyone knows that one tho, 9/16 on tensioner bolt then 1/4 slide it upward motion to relieve all tension.

Then go under car and flip off blower belt u must use HE-MAN strength from under if you are like me and dont have a huge 3/8 drive to move that tensioner. Actually now that i think about it you wont have the space to use a huge 3/8 drive anyways.

Once thats done you must go to ps/alt side and remove that belt. Thats where u use 8mm on the big silver tensioner just enough to loosen it so the long tension bolt can move it up and down. From there u take the 4mm (dont quote me i think it was 4mm) allen key and loosen tensioner fully.

Go back under car and loosen belt off ribs and remove it from bottom pulley.

Now for getting to ac compressor u need to remove the OEM tensioner first with 9/16 socket and beast it off. Then remove top bolt off OD bracket of Flip that has a spacer which runs below top of belt. Once u got that bolt off u simply slide off spacer and bam you can change out the compressor belt. Lol

From there its all in reverse and u just need to make sure u rib the ac to back 4 ribs (closest to engine) on OD pulley toward the ps side.

NOTE: It would be great if u had a helper especially when putting back on blower but with Army Strong strength ull be ok. Ill try to provide better pictorials later but i think this write up is easy enough to understand.

I posted this DIY as hoping to help someone tackle this in the future. I didnt have any instructions on me and didnt see any here on forum. Not everyone has the awesome Matt@FSP on speed dial but even his phone could die and ur screwed lol. So now you have this.

If your 4 rib belt looks like the below(weak link on system IMO). Ur fkd.. Lol hard labor must commence..





Here is PS/Alt pulley side where you need the 8mm to loosen tensioner, the top bolt is what pushes tensioner down so u loosen this bolt fully. You remove both other 8mm allen bolts that hold bracket to alt if changing belt. If not changing belt it isnt necessary to remove bracket.



Here is what it looks like underneath car when viewing from below notice it may look big in the pic but there is NO space for arms just a WARNING.


This is what i did to remove blower belt; from below fully extend GM tensioner upward then slowly remove belt if it isnt damaged. My blower belt was damaged a little so i replaced it.


This is part number from ecs flip kit ac 4 rib belt but do NOT use this same part # because it is way too tight and prob why mine snapped.


Bottom pulley is ac compressor, middle is tensioner, top is crank. Do not mind the belt routing there because thats how it looked snapped. However you can see the GM tensioner to the left of ac comp tensioner that MUST be removed and spacer is right above black middle tensioner there.

GM tensioner u must remove in pic. This is same tensioner u need to pry up in the end to put belt back on blower.


This is what it should look like once removed GM tensioner.


This is FLIP pulley which i recommend as the last pulley to push on the 4 rib when routing it because its easiest to get to. You will need to FULLY extend ac tensioner up in order to get the belt over that pulley at all. *if not on a lift use a pry bar on tensioner or 5/8 in your shoulder like you would place the butt of an M16 in your arm or Shotgun. Trust me all hands on deck fully engaged if your alone. I literally pryed up tensioner max then placed in my shoulder holding it while i tried to route belt. Was prob 2 most PITA. If u have a buddy can use the 5/8 to extend while u put on.




Ac tensioner love to hate it.

This is what you need to do by prying up while trying to flip belt on ribs, this vid is on a lift by FSP

NOTE: not as easy while under car prying and extending belt over ribs alone.


This is what ps/alt side looks like when u remove the tension and pull off the flip pulley part of belt. U can see how belt is routed here and all thats left is popping it over the lower flip pulley on the outer 6 ribs toward bumper. U can see here its VERY tight if trying to remove belt u need a special 8mm allen key thats very short, maybe 1/4 inch length on one end so it doesnt hit those hard lines there.


This is when i got the GM tensioner and the od spacer OFF the car, above the ac compressor tensioner. The top bolt is off of that spacer and bottom bolt with huge washer is off the GM tensioner.


NOTE: once again DO NOT route the belt to the forward 4 ribs toward the bumper but slide to the back 4 toward ENGINE side. It looks aligned when ur face is only 6 inches from the belt but it is wrong and not aligned. Use back 4 ribs towards engine pls. U DO NOT wanna do this again it aint fun. Lol

I asked Matt to draw this amazing pictorial for me because my belt was already broken off pulleys and didnt know how it was routed lol

That was ac compressor 4 rib routing on flip car only. The other 2 belts i had memorized. Blower belt wraps pulley tensioner goes underneath then it wraps around GM tensioner and crank. Ps side wraps Alt and belt under tensioner fully extended down 4mm allen tension bar. And around ps pulley and flip pulley which has 6 ribs both sides for alt/ps & compressor



Once done enjoy new belts..

The pic here is NOT of an ECS system this is a procharger but the only diff is the ECS doesnt have the lower crank/ac tensioner pulley on lower right (next to bracket that says Hormilla) under the ac condenser/ps pulley. The second difference is the most upper left (marked by orange dot) tensioner is not what we have on ECS kit (only procharger has attached that huge tensioner to the blower). Youll have the GM tensioner as pictured above.

Arctic Vette

Will be editing this a while just FYI..

neutron82

what caused the ac belt to snap?

Arctic Vette

Great question, but when a belt snaps its hard to tell what the culprit is.. But it did snap and have a snag half cut in it as u see in the first pic. Ill need to trace my fingers with no gloves on it tmrw or next time im doing something to double check any snags that may be hitting the belt. So it confuses me with my belt snapping experiences most of the time a clean snap to me means its just way too tight. But with the half cut it leads me to think it had a kink somewhere in the rib system. That can be hard to trace unless i get back under and rub a sponge on all rib pulleys see if it snags. Im hoping it snapped cause it was too tight, ill def have to check it again and now that i know symptoms i can catch it quicker when i see that code again.

Arctic Vette

The replacement belt is a few inches bigger btw..

These are my belt part #

AC belt/flip drive is K040475
PS/Alt Flip drive belt is K060365
SC belt is K080550hd

Dealripper

Good write up😃 My idler bearing on my ac belt went bad and caused my belt to shred.😡

Arctic Vette

Shred or snap clean in half, any pix? Ill def check the bearing too but when i was propping it up it didnt make any noise and was moving freely. Tks for sharing tho. Appreciate the kind feedback.

Dealripper

It shredded the idler bearing or follower was shot, and that probably caused the belt to go out of alignment. I was 200 miles away from home and could not fix it on the road. I had to use AAA to get back home. Also I have the ECS DIRECT DRIVE setup and it has an c5 bracket on it. The C6 does not have an idler or follower on its A/C setup. It threw me for a loop when I went to the dealer looking for the part. I made a recent post if that helps.

Arctic Vette

Ill def check it out tks. Yes its practically impossible to change ac belt without it being on a lift or jacked up. Luckily i was only 20 miles away when it popped off. If it popped and i was 200 miles away id try to park it somewhere and bring all tools lol. No way im paying that huge tow fee im sure u paid I guess i would if i had no choice though. I linked your post below in case anyone has that issue.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...y-problem.html

Dealripper

I tried k40470. I just can't get it to fit. Is k040475 a little larger?

Arctic Vette

It is a half inch larger. You need 2 people to get on that smaller belt. Ive been gettingn away with 040478 too. Always gonna keep spares in my trunk and tools needed.

Arctic Vette

478k4 is duralast
5040478 dayco

neutron82

I had my a&a jackshaft pulley and balancer on the ac side cut for 6 ribs... I'm currently only running the 4 rib ac belt and haven't had any problems so far but if I do then I will just get a zr1 ac compressor and some wider idlers and convert to 6 rib

Arctic Vette

I may be doing that as well neutron..

schpenxel

So the ZR1 runs a 6 rib AC compressor pulley?

neutron82

yep... it would be even easier for me to do the swap if I could find a 6 rib ac pulley/clutch that would bolt onto my compressor... the zr1 pulley/clutch mounts up differently and I haven't been able to find a car that uses a 6 rib setup that I could swap onto my compressor. .. surely there is one out there that would work but I haven't found it yet... if I use the whole zr1 compressor I will have to get custom lines made

schpenxel

Ah gotcha

Pulling the clutch isn't much fun but is doable with the compressor still connected to the refrigerant lines.

Yeah there's got to be one out there somewhere..

Dealripper

Thanks for the info I will get one in the AM😃

Dealripper

I did not have to pay a dime for the tow.

Dealripper

Are these part numbers for the AC belt?