Accessory belt drive question
Accessory belt drive question I am setting up a serpentine belt drive for only water pump, alternator, and AC compressor. It's going in a 68 vette so I'm putting the alternator on the drivers side top, like current vettes, and AC compressor high on the passenger side.
I'm planning to keep it simple and make the alternator adjustable to tighten the belt. No tensioner or idlers, just a big V shape around the alternator and AC compressor. The non-ribbed side of the belt would go under the water pump pulley.
Question, without idlers or tensioners with edges to guide the belt, will it slip off the water pump pulley? Will I need an idler with sides to guide the belt onto the water pump?
Gary
I'm planning to keep it simple and make the alternator adjustable to tighten the belt. No tensioner or idlers, just a big V shape around the alternator and AC compressor. The non-ribbed side of the belt would go under the water pump pulley.
Question, without idlers or tensioners with edges to guide the belt, will it slip off the water pump pulley? Will I need an idler with sides to guide the belt onto the water pump?
Gary
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 3,148
Likes: 12
From: Downers Grove, IL
As long as you have a good alignment between all of your accys you will not need to have an idler or tensioner to guide the belt onto the water pump.
That being said I would include a tensioner anyway if I was building it. I have built a couple accy bracket setups before and the last one that I built was for my chevette. I built the accy mount brackets out of 1/2" black iron pipe and 5/16" washers for the ends. After doing that one it seemed like it was a lot easier to solidly mount the accys and then just bolt on a tensioner to keep the bolt tight. The tensioner off a 90`s LT1 caprice/impala is very easy to mount as it only has 2 bolts that hold it on. Plus I don`t have to worry about setting/checking the belt tension. Heres a couple pics of how it turned out on the chevette
That being said I would include a tensioner anyway if I was building it. I have built a couple accy bracket setups before and the last one that I built was for my chevette. I built the accy mount brackets out of 1/2" black iron pipe and 5/16" washers for the ends. After doing that one it seemed like it was a lot easier to solidly mount the accys and then just bolt on a tensioner to keep the bolt tight. The tensioner off a 90`s LT1 caprice/impala is very easy to mount as it only has 2 bolts that hold it on. Plus I don`t have to worry about setting/checking the belt tension. Heres a couple pics of how it turned out on the chevette
Clamp a flat edge to the crank pulley and measure the distance from the flat edge to the first groove with a caliper. Make all the pulleys the same and you will be golden.
