Chrysler Repair: 1991 Dynasty Computer, salvage yards, serpentine belt

Question
hi Roland,

I was recently driving through some deep snow and my serpentine belt came off. It happened very close to home so I managed to get the car back to my drive way. Once I got the belt back on properly the car would not run properly and was miss firing etc. I took the belt off again and the car ran perfectly. A mechanically inclined friend of mine suggested that he had seen this happen before and that a power surge when the belt came off likely fried my computer. another friend suggested that maybe I just need to reset my computer to remove all the error codes in memory. Any suggestions? I've been told that it's almost impossible to find a computer at the salvage yards these days because so many of these cars were scrapped without salvaging any thing off of them.

thanks,

John

Answer
Hi John,
I don't understand ths power surge theory. Nor can I understand what component being driven by the serpentine would interact with the computer in a deleterious manner. If you want to reset the computer, simply disconnect the battery for a few minutes. The radio presets and clock will need to be reset, but that is the only inconvenience.
Did you put the belt back on and did it run badly again?
If you want to check for fault codes before resetting the computer, just turn the ignition key:"on-off-on-off-on and leave on" doing that in 5 seconds or less elapsed time. Then watch the check engine light which remains 'on' to begin to flash, pause, flash, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause. Then repeat to be sure you get an accurate set of flash counts.  Group the counts in pairs in the order of appearance to form the 2-digit fault code numbers. The last number is always 55 which means 'end of readout'. Write back with the results of go to www.allpar.com/fix/codes.html for a code list.
Roland