How to Replace Serpentine Belt 1994-2002 Dodge Ram 1500

Hey friends. It's Len here, at 1A Auto. Today we're working on our 1996 Dodge Ram 1500. This is the Laramie with a 5.9. We're going to be showing you how to replace the serpentine belt. It's going to be very simple. I can do it. You can do it too. And as always, if you need any tools or parts, you can always check us out 1Aauto.com. Thanks.

Okay friends, so we're up underneath the hood here. You'll notice that the fan and the fan clutch is out of this, and that's only for viewing purposes. You do not need to remove the fan clutch from the vehicle to do your serpentine belt.

With that said, what you would do, take a look at the way that it's ran right now. The serpentine belt routing comes like this over the tensioner, over the alternator, down under the idler, back up over the AC, over the top of the power steering, comes around. Goes over the top of the water pump, circles around the water pump, goes around through the bottom of the crank and then back up over the top of the tensioner. Okay, so essentially you're going to have half your belt over on this side and the other half of your belt over on this side. Like I said, you do not need to remove the fan or the fan clutch.

To continue, we're going to use a 14 millimeter right on the tensioner bolt here. Let's try to get it on there. If you turn it clockwise, it releases tension on the belt and then you can slide it off of the idler pulley with your finger. There we are. I'm going to release this, that off of there. The rest of my tool off of here. Serpentine belt tools are available 1Aauto.com by the way. Now we'll just remove the belt. It's gonna come right off. Just like this. Easy peasy. There's our serpentine belt.

Here we are. Let's get up in here again, we have our serpentine belt, whether it's old or new. If you're using your old one, just take a peek. You have your ribbed area. Just want to make sure that you don't have any cracks. Dry rot and cracks are very bad. This looks really good. The backing on it isn't super shiny. It is a little bit but not very. We're going to take our belt, hold it so it's in half. Just like this. I'm going to come from my left side here. I'm going to go right over the crank so it's sitting in all the grooves. Just like that. I'm going to take the flat side of the belt, go up over the water pump, bring it this way, come right along like this.

If the clutch was on there, it would make this actually easier to physically do because then the belt wouldn't be able to fall off all over the place, but that's okay. Anything for you guys. I got this on here. Go right over the alternator, like I said, over the AC and then down to the idler. At this point, I'm going to hold it just like this. Take a peek, make sure the belts not sitting off of one side or the other on any of the pulleys. As far as I can see, everybody looks good. Get our serpentine belt tool. Just going to get it on there.

Release the pressure here, gives us slack with the belt. Slide it right onto that idler. Just like that. I like to go like this a couple of times. Here we are. Make sure you have all of your pieces for your serpentine belt tool off of there. A lot of times they like to stick on here. Then you'll drive down the road. You hear ping, ping. What was that? Oh, that was one of your tools. Anyway, to continue, once again, we're going to take a peek. Make sure that the belt is sitting on all of the pulleys dead center and it's not off on any of the channels. I'm going to get underneath. I'm going to check the bottom of that crank real quick.

Then what we'll do is after the fan clutches back in this, because I removed it, yours should still be in, but anyway, for me personally, after the fan clutch is in this, I'm going to start up the vehicle. Let it run for maybe five seconds. Turn it back off, get back out and double check the fan. Double check the belt to make sure that it's all inside the right areas.

All right, let's start it up. That's the sound off power right there. Feel the V8 Magnum. Take a look. It's like the belts flowing right where it's supposed to. Fan is turning. Everything looks great. Let's turn it off. Just take a double peek at all those pulleys. That belt looks great. Give that a tug. It feels good. We'll check over on this side. Alright. Climb underneath here. Take a peek. Oh yeah, it looks great on the crank under there. Sweet. That wraps that up. Easy peasy.

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