*** Serpentine belt experts, please help ****
*** Serpentine belt experts, please help **** Here's the story. My belt comes off all the time.
I first started to notice black powder from the belt coating heads, water pump, throttle body, and so on last year when I put the car in storage. Over the winter I got a fluid dampner harmonic balancer, along with the new heads, and cam. When I got the car back on the road this spring it was fine. Once or twice the belt slipped off when I really got on it. Now it comes off all the time. I'm sick of chewing up belts. I borrowed a friends stock tensioner last night. Still have the same problem. So I took off the fluid dampner balancer and put on the stock balancer. Still comes off. I just tried a 1/2 smaller belt, and it still comes off. It's come off 4 times in the last 12 hours. I tried all these "adjustments" in the last 12 hours. I make a change, go out to the freeway entrance ramp, floor it in 2nd, pull over, and it starting to come off.
So my questions to you experts are:
1. Why am I getting the black dusting from the belt, I mean why is it coming off the serpentine belt?
2. Will the Katech adjustable really do the trick?
3. Where do I get the larry pulley?
Is this black dusting a sign of another problem?
Help.
I first started to notice black powder from the belt coating heads, water pump, throttle body, and so on last year when I put the car in storage. Over the winter I got a fluid dampner harmonic balancer, along with the new heads, and cam. When I got the car back on the road this spring it was fine. Once or twice the belt slipped off when I really got on it. Now it comes off all the time. I'm sick of chewing up belts. I borrowed a friends stock tensioner last night. Still have the same problem. So I took off the fluid dampner balancer and put on the stock balancer. Still comes off. I just tried a 1/2 smaller belt, and it still comes off. It's come off 4 times in the last 12 hours. I tried all these "adjustments" in the last 12 hours. I make a change, go out to the freeway entrance ramp, floor it in 2nd, pull over, and it starting to come off.
So my questions to you experts are:
1. Why am I getting the black dusting from the belt, I mean why is it coming off the serpentine belt?
2. Will the Katech adjustable really do the trick?
3. Where do I get the larry pulley?
Is this black dusting a sign of another problem?
Help.
TECH Veteran
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 4,117
Likes: 0
From: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA
Katech is what I got when my belt would come off from wacking the throttle. The stock tensioner sucks because it bounces too much when you hit the throttle.
The black stuff is from the sides of the belt rubbing off all over eveything.
The Katech is perfect. The bely can't come off no matter what. There's no tensioner to bounce around.
If you get the Larry Pulley the belt will still want to move forward and come off. This will cause the belt to always rub against the metal wall of the Larry Pulley. It'll weaken and break sooner or later.
The black stuff is from the sides of the belt rubbing off all over eveything.
The Katech is perfect. The bely can't come off no matter what. There's no tensioner to bounce around.
If you get the Larry Pulley the belt will still want to move forward and come off. This will cause the belt to always rub against the metal wall of the Larry Pulley. It'll weaken and break sooner or later.
Thanks for your reply. I'll get the Katech. I have a question for you though Why did the problem become worse? It would happen once in awhile, now it happens everytime? If you say that my tensioner has gotten weaker, than why did it happen right away with my buddys tensioner last night?
TECH Veteran
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 4,117
Likes: 0
From: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA
Originally Posted by ss1le02
Thanks for your reply. I'll get the Katech. I have a question for you though Why did the problem become worse? It would happen once in awhile, now it happens everytime? If you say that my tensioner has gotten weaker, than why did it happen right away with my buddys tensioner last night?
I tried two brand new tensioners from the dealer when my problem started and they both made the belt come halfway off on the first smack of the throttle. Thats when I came here and found out about the Katech pulley.
Originally Posted by Lostpatrolman
try the gatorback serp belt. A few people have fixed this problem by going with the gatorback.
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Verdad Gallardo TECH Veteran
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 4,117
Likes: 0
From: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA
Originally Posted by ss1le02
Thanks for the suggestion. I checked that right off the bat.
I jumped through all the hoops too man, all you need is the Katech pulley and there is no way on gods green earth any brand of belt can come off again. You'll waste your money on a Gatorback belt. I have almost 500 RWHP and I've been wacking my throttle for almost 2 years every day now and the belt is perfect and it doesn't budge.
