Well let me start with saying that I went from my 9 pound pull to a 12-14 pound pully (cant remember the diameters but its relaly not important for my story). Well I got a Gates 56.5 inch belt for it and it was a tad too short. I had to unbolt the blower and put the belt on it and bolt it up with the belt on to get it on. Pain in the butt for sure!

Well, I worked fine and I had many trouble free miles with that setup. Then disaster (almost) the pully walked out on the shaft and rubbed my radiator hose clean off AND of course threw the belt and made it shred in little pieces. The bolt came out I guess I didn't give it enough torque to kep on on there with the pully change.

Well I fixed the problem and put some medium grade loktite on the pully bolt this time and torqued it a bit more. And I stepped up to a 57.0" belt. It goes on just right and the tensioner is at a good spot (so i thought). Well I have thrown 4 belt in the past month. All 57 inch belts. I couldn't understand it. I tried a 57.5 but it bottomed out my tensioner. And i REFUSE to have it be THAT much of a chore to take my belt on and off with the 56.5" belt. The alignments are strait as an arrow.

Well I THINK I figured out the problem. With this length belt the top belt for the tensioner is RIGHT above the belt. And when I get on it of course the belt flares up toward the bolt head. The clearance is NOT quite enough. If I go to redline (5700rpm) then it goes up high enough and catches on it and always rips the inner two ribs off and then shreds the belt.

But i corrected the problem (so I think) by grinding the bolt head down so its much thinner and using a thinner washer. Plenty of clearance now. But the blet shredded again.

This is my question. This last belt to throw was already slightly damaged by the above problem. but it looked to be enough to still use. The inner two ribs were kinda not really connected to the other 6 and the outer fabric was slightly frayed. It drove fine but I tryed to get on it again and it came apart.

I am almost POSITIVE I corrected the problem. Did that last belt throw because it was already damaged? Or Am I wrong and the problem is elseware?

Also.... what is the correct torque setting for the blower pully bolt? And how do you guys hold it in place to get it snug enough when it just wants to rotate?

Thanks in advance for any advice you give me.

 

I would probably guess that your belt is flaring even more than you think when the engine is loaded (not just sittin' there reving up) and hitting that bolt, you could always put a recess in the bracket for the bolt head to fit into and be out of the way.

plus the damaged belt could also be the culprit,

just a thought
later
larry

 

I fixed it. Put a new balt on there today. Drove the HELL outta it and the belt stayed in place. Yay!