Today’s show had a fellow that replaced his serpentine belt with a pair of his daughters tights. The car in question was a 99 Buick. He looped them from the crank pulley to the water pump. Bad Idea ! The water pump on this car is a " reverse rotation " type. It runs off the BACK side of the belt. If you are required to do an emergency belt transplant, the pulley on the pumps that are smooth need to turn the OPPOSITE direction of the crank pulley to pump water and cool the engine, ergo, they run off the back side of the belt. The caller’s situation would be problematic as his tensioner assembly was broken and the belt could not be routed the correct way.
I tried nylon hose on my '58 Pontiac years ago. It lasted about 20 seconds before coming off.
Tom and Ray have been retired for some time, so this call about the 99 Buick probably took place at least five years ago.
In any case, as long as he “looped” the pantyhose in a figure eight, all should be well.
I can recall Popular Science magazine advising the use of stockings or pantyhose as an emergency measure, in lieu of a fan belt, somewhere back in the '60s. While it might have worked back then, I don’t think that this strategy would be of much use nowadays.
Then again, PS also advised that, if your car was bogged down in mud, you should drip some oil from your dipstick onto the tire with less traction, so that the traction was transferred to the wheel with more traction. More questionable advice, even if you had a limited-slip diff…
@VDC I agree that on older cars it worked. I used them on a 1978 Pontiac Lemans V8, and made it to the nearest garage 6 miles away after the belt snapped on start up on a very cold morning…