Chrysler Repair: 99 Dodge van wont start after water splash/belt came off, dodge grand caravan, crankshaft pulley

Question
We have a 99 Dodge Grand Caravan.  My husband was driving to work 3 weeks ago on a snowy, sloppy day.  He drove through a puddle and after doing so the van died.  The puddle was not huge but big enough to notice.  We got the van towed back and waited a day or two before trying start it.  When we tried it did nothing.  We also tried jumping it, it tired to start but never turned over.  Today we put a new battery in got it running but it is running really strange.  We noticed when it was running the belt was not moving then it slipped off.  Any suggestions on what is going on?
Thanks

Answer
Hi Kym,
When a very long serpentine belt gets wet it often will slip off a pulley, particularly ones where the back side of the belt (no ribs) is turning the pulley. It is also possible that one of the mechanical modules that it being driven by the belt has locked up or become difficult to turn so you might check each of the items that the belt drives (of course the crankshaft pulley is driving the belt so it will not move at all until the engine is started). So my inclination would be to check the belt on ribbed side to make sure there are no cracks running lengthwise (along the ribs, crosswise cracks are ok) and that the surface of the ribbed side is not severely glazed and the backing cords are not frayed, which otherwise would be a reason for replacing the belt. If that checks out, then reinstall the belt (there may be a diagram on the underside of the hood).
To fit the belt on you need to rotate a tensioner arm which has a pulley on it, using a wrench on the pulley shaft bolt and rotating the entire arm clockwise to give you the slack necessary to install the belt. Let me know if you don't have a diagram or have other questions about reinstalling the belt. But tell me which engine you have as there are 4 different possibilities.
You might also want to check whether the splash shield on the right front wheel inner fender was left off sometime in the past which if so would increase the likelihood that a small puddle will splash water in sufficient quantity againt the front of the engine to cause this kind of problem. It is panel which is removable that separates the back side of the wheel well from the engine compartment. If it is missing you can get another one from a dealer or a pull-it-yourself wrecking yard. The fact that the small puddle caused this makes me question if the splash shield was not put back in place after servicing the belts or water pump sometime in the past.
But if the driven modules are ok and you get the belt back on, then maybe things will return to normal. It could be that water got on the spark plug insulators at the sockets which would possibly cause a poor spark condition, which will improve with usage. Similar temporary missing can happen when water gets on other high voltage electrical parts, but this may resolve itself with driving.
Roland