Serpentine belt question

**White Knight** · 09-20-2010, 12:12 AM

Couldn't really find a place to post about a 2000 Sable, and don't wanna register on a Mercury forum for one post, so I'll try here. Long story short, the serpentine belt broke on my 24V 2000 Sable. I checked the pulleys to see if anything ceased, and they all turn, except the bottom big one. Looks to be the crankshaft. It's dark and late, so I'm gonna buy the belt in the morning.

Question: Is it supposed to turn? If yes, what could be wrong?

Here is the diagram:

**sunsetorangess** · 09-20-2010, 01:17 AM

Unless the engine is locked up it will turn although not eaisley. Its bolted directly to your crankshaft so inorder to turn that pulley you will need the entire engine to turn over. You can either have someone crank on it to ensure nothings wrong or get a breaker bar down in there to give it a turn.
J

**Too Fast** · 09-20-2010, 02:28 AM

No, the big bottom one is on the crank, it won't usually turn by hand. Now, serpentine belts usually don't just break, there is a reason for it. Make sure everything turns fairly easily. I've seen the tensioners go bad on these engines and sometimes the alternators or water pump. So, when you get the new belt on, make sure it is not noisey. If it is, there is something locking up causing the problem.

**Skippy** · 09-20-2010, 07:53 PM

I had a tricky one in my shop like this a couple of months ago. Belt broke and all pulleys turned fine until they were loaded by the tension of the belt. When the belt was tensioned the A/C was locked up. When we install a new belt we have someone watch while we bump it over and then start it to make sure everything is working properly.