LA Intake with Serpentine Setup

Keystone said
I verified there is in fact plenty of clearance for the belt to pass in both directions when bypassing the A/C. I'm just pulling the slack on the too long belt here, but it proves that this approach works. And again, this is a truck PS bracket
View attachment 1715878826

I even found that they show this very routing in the shop manual; at least the 1996 and '97 version.
View attachment 1715878828

What's odd is, the the non-A/C belt is showing as 88.5 inches
View attachment 1715878840

but when you search for that part number, people say it's too short. For example, look at some of the comments here:

https://www.autozone.com/cooling-heating-and-climate-control/belt/p/duralast-belt-885k7/66368_0_0

Maybe the factory non-A/C setup used one or more smaller pulleys, so when you try to use that particular belt on a truck that was originally A/C, you actually need a slightly longer one. Whatever, it turns out to be, I'll post back what worked for me to make it a littler easier for others.

That same routing is shown on the truck itself, on a sticker on the radiator support. That is why I tried the first time on my truck when the AC compressor bearing went out. That clearance you show is exactly how mine looked. When I did this on my truck, I did not know there were two different idler pulley locations and I just bought the non-AC belt. It is possible the people saying it does not work have little mechanical ability and just cannot figure out how to get the belt on, which pulley has to be looped around last. Also, the reviews in that link that said it was too short were not full size trucks, they were Durangos and Dakotas, which have different bracket and pulley arrangements. When I used the non-AC belt it was on a 99 Ram 2500 with 5.9 Magnum.