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The original belt in my Aero started separating this weekend, with a lovely 'thwop-thwop-thwop' at idle. Now, I know serp belts can be fine well after they look like they're utterly destroyed, but in the interest of science, I tried a short belt.
I had an NG900 short belt on hand, which was mentioned a couple times as also being the 9-5 short belt (though I was pretty suspicious). I never got a chance to throw it on my NG, so I figured, everything's closed for the holiday and I have to travel...
It does fit. However, the tensioner's waaaay out there, enough to rattle ominously at low idle. It does clear the engine mount. It would seem a belt ~20 mm shorter would be perfect (if such a thing exists). I'll have to check on that. The 'NG short' belt has held about 200 miles, no particular care paid, in the rain, lock to lock on the steering, etc.
On an associated note, while I was in there, I had a gates/acdelco 38008 idler, which I'd researched and thought might fit in place of the Saab upper idler. It does, and runs, but comes *very* close to the tensioner. It's bigger, and I thought I might help the tensioner noise, but it didn't much.
I guess if you're REALLY stuck, the 38008 could be an emergency part (it's a stock 4.3/5.7L GM part, I think any parts store will have one). I threw the original back on, not wanting to tempt fate twice.
Note this all applies to the 'later' layout, early 99s use smaller, older NG-type idler. I think Saabsite has VIN ranges for that.
Time to curl up with the Gates catalog, I think the belt in there is 2480mm, anybody know what the next standard size down is?
Thanks,
--fsik
posted by 68.175.120...
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