Reference: Ford V8 fan belts: off the shelf replacement

[rob love]

I just went through this exercise of one belt being at the outer limit, and the next available size down was just too short. In my case it is an 8BA engine squeezed into a carrier.

The flatheads with the single water pump pulleys only had a bushing for the water pump shaft. As such, the belts were elft with considerable deflection. Since our CMPs had the heavy duty double pulley water pumps with a more conventional bearing on the pump shafts, you can get away with a little tighter belt.

The new belt will stretch considerably in the first 10 minutes of run time. Rather than forcing it on with a screwdriver, get it started onto the upper pulley as best you can and then turn the fan to get it to take. Once it is on the pulley, you may find it is not that bad. After 10 minutes of run-time, you may find it stretched into specs.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by rob love

The new belt will stretch considerably in the first 10 minutes of run time. Rather than forcing it on with a screwdriver, get it started onto the upper pulley as best you can and then turn the fan to get it to take. Once it is on the pulley, you may find it is not that bad. After 10 minutes of run-time, you may find it stretched into specs.

Thanks for the tips, will give it a try again.

I will be living in my truck and doing a lot of driving during 13-22 september, so I'm sure I will get to learn much more about the intricacies of a Ford CMP

Hanno

[rob love]

Personally I love the Ford flatheads, with one exception. The charging systems on the early ones are so marginal (this goes for most 6 volts vehicles actually) that at some point you will be tempted to use the hand crank to start it. Twice my old KL whacked me in the elbow, and after I finished doing the dance of pain, she just sat there purring away, unapologetic and oblivious to the pain she caused me.