I have a 98 Ram 318. The serpentine belt came off last night and Im thinking that the spring in the tensioner assembly has gone. I am wondering if anyone knows how hard this is to change.

 

Dead easy. Have to pull the ignition coil out of the way, and then it is one bolt. Done.

Only complication I ran into was the new tensioner was larger diameter than the original, so, had to space the coil out a bit. 15 minutes.

 

Awesome..that is good news as I dont have a garage to fix it in so Im out in the middle of a parking lot . Now just curious...do you think Id be crazy to get an assembly from the auto wreckers($35)? or should I buy a new one($120)? Funds are very limited right now.

 

I got a new one for like 65 bucks...... but, you are in canada... that might make a difference. I replaced mine because it was seized... I suppose you could get one from the yard, just verify that it works (moves freely, and good spring tension) before you remove it.

 

Thanks..I know the guy at the yard, very good friend of my dad's so that helps cause I know that he wont try to sell me something that's crap. I will post later and let you know how I made out.

 

junkyard version should be fine.
probably any late 90's dodge is compatible.

don't unbolt the coil from its bracket (little bitty bolt)
do unbolt the bracket from the block (larger bolt).

 

Well it turned out that it wasnt the tensioner assembly. It was the water pump. That was the only pulley that I didnt try turning as I knew what it was and was told to check the tensioner pulley. Not a simple job if you dont have the right tools and you are working in an apartment building parking lot in the cold and wind and light snow falling lol. Hope to have it finished tomorrow.

 

The water pump isn't too bad, a couple sockets, a couple wrenches, a bucket, some sort of scraper (I used a pocket knife), some channel locks and a couple hours is all you need to get it done.

Too bad it isn't the belt tensioner, I think it took me about 7 minutes in the Advance auto parking lot to change mine. My original was sticking in place so I replaced it with a junkyard deal then when the clicking from the spring in the junkyard one got to bugging me enough (after a couple years) I got a new one.

 

95 b2500 van, 318 engine, tensioner weak and noisy. Should I do new, or junkyard? Have to remove radiator shroud, which takes more time than prolly changing tensioner.

Anyone got any shortcuts or suggestions? (just changed water pump--did not realize tensioner was bad until whole thing back together).

 

New is the best. You can't really know how much life is left in the part from the junkyard, and if the one you get from the yard happens to fail by seizing it can get expensive in a hurry.