JustAnotherGuy

My old Serpentine belt was starting to shred so I truck on down to my local Auto zone to get a replacement. They look it up and give me the belt that the comp showed that it took.

I get back home take off the old belt and I try my best to get that durn new belt on but its just too short. So I compare it to my old belt that I just took off and its just 1/8 of a inch shorter.*what it needed to fit on*

So I go back down to auto zone thinking they just gave me the wrong one. They look it up and it’s the right belt for a 94. Just out of curiosity I ask them to look up a 95 Z-28 belt and it’s the right lenght. *he also did a check on the old belt by running the number and it turned out to be a 95 also*

Do I have a 95 and the lady that sold it to me just thought it was a 94? Or is there maybe a late model 94

What would be different that the actual 94 belt would not fit my car?

Thanks for reading my boring story

99BlackTA

I am not certain but I think when the belts where out they stretch over time. A 94 and 95 belt should be pretty much the same thing. The new belt won't be the same length because it hasn't been run yet and the old one is worn out and stretched.

JustAnotherGuy

Yeah i thoguht about that. but there was no way that belt they gave me was going to go on. i spent the better part of 30 mins trying to fight that thing on. after i got the 95 belt it went on in under 5 mins.
the other belt was going to be WAY to tight if i ever got it on.

Injuneer

You were using a socket and a breaker bar to move the tensioner pulley into the correct position? Once you get the belt on, there is an arrow and markers on the tensioner pulley. As long as the arrow is between the markers, you have the correct belt.

JustAnotherGuy

i was pulling the tensioner down as far as it would go. and i was goning to have to use something to pry that belt on.
like i said b4 after i got the 95 belt it went on with plenty of tension left after i let off of the tensioner and runs with out any slipping.

Injuneer

Then I'd say that Auto Zone's part lookup for the 94 was incorrect. There is no difference in the belt used for any of the 93-97 LT1's that I am aware of. At least for the non-1LE models. I have seen some people complain that the stock belt was too long after deleting the A/C and substituting the 1LE A/C delete pulley, but maybe only 1/2 of the people. Everyone elses stock belt works, even with the 1LE.

shoebox

There was a change in the diameter of the a/c pulley during the 1994 model year. The later pulleys were larger, so the belt would have to be longer. Looks like you have the 2nd design pulley that was also used in subsequent years.

JustAnotherGuy

Thanks for all the replies. the main reason I was asking is I just was wondering if they used the vented opti on mine, *did not know if it would affect the belt length just the only thing i could think of that changed between 94 - 95* because I plan on doing a head/cam swap durring the summer and had planed on geting a new opti while i was down there. just wanted to make sure i still needed a non-vented one



Thanks again
matt