Belt tension

[hauss]

I have a cog belt for my water pump and alternator not sure how much to tighten it. should it be somewhat loose compared to a v belt their is not much stretch to it . Belt looks like a blower belt if that helps.

[Gaz64]

From Peterson Fluid Systems:

Tuesday Tech Tip:
Setting belt tension & HTD belts (radius tooth) vs. Gilmer belts (square tooth).
Unlike v-belts and serpentine style belts, toothed belts such as HTD and Gilmer's don't need to be overly tight. The teeth on the belt do the work, not the tension. The rule of thumb to check belt tension is you should be able to grab the belt in the center between the two pulleys and turn it 90 degrees so the teeth are facing you. If you can turn it 180 so the teeth are pointing straight up at you, its too loose. If you can't turn it 90 degrees, its too tight.
Over tightening belts can cause excessive belt walking and occasionally premature pulley wear.

[hauss]

Originally Posted by Gaz64

From Peterson Fluid Systems:

Tuesday Tech Tip:
Setting belt tension & HTD belts (radius tooth) vs. Gilmer belts (square tooth).
Unlike v-belts and serpentine style belts, toothed belts such as HTD and Gilmer's don't need to be overly tight. The teeth on the belt do the work, not the tension. The rule of thumb to check belt tension is you should be able to grab the belt in the center between the two pulleys and turn it 90 degrees so the teeth are facing you. If you can turn it 180 so the teeth are pointing straight up at you, its too loose. If you can't turn it 90 degrees, its too tight.
Over tightening belts can cause excessive belt walking and occasionally premature pulley wear.

I have looked all over and ask alot of people this question and you sir are the first to give a good answer .Thank you very much!

[Gaz64]

You're welcome.

I looked for that to save me typing.

Thanks to Peterson.

Timing belts are similar.

Gary

[Danr55]

I've had really bad luck with lugged belts squeezing and slipping. Found that solid belts work better

[hauss]

Let"s just say the jury is still out. To be fair 5500 rpm, Improper belt tension, bearing on alternator completely shot and finally improper alignment . Now that all issues are addressed we will see how it goes. By the way, found out you can use a chevy alternator on a ford just need a 7/16 drill bit to widen the bottom hole and a spacer found a 100 amp single wire chrome for $120 at my local speed shop. They wanted $ 240 for the crome ford one.

[RD31]

Make sure the alternator pulley diameter is appropriate for the crank pulley given the alternator's specifications. The alternator RPM is determined by the crank to alternator pulley ratio of the diameters. You might see discussions on this topic that refer to underdrive or overdrive setups.
My current setup will not charge the system at idle but is made to withstand the 7K RPMs it's likely to see at the track. My previous alternator setup would often fail at the track because they couldn't handle the high RPMs for the length of time I was driving in the events.

[cycleguy55]

Originally Posted by hauss

Let"s just say the jury is still out. To be fair 5500 rpm, Improper belt tension, bearing on alternator completely shot and finally improper alignment . Now that all issues are addressed we will see how it goes. By the way, found out you can use a chevy alternator on a ford just need a 7/16 drill bit to widen the bottom hole and a spacer found a 100 amp single wire chrome for $120 at my local speed shop. They wanted $ 240 for the crome ford one.

Just because you can doesn't mean you should. I MUCH prefer a Ford 3G over the common GM style 1-wire alternators. At least part of the reason can be found in this Web page: Catalog

[hauss]

Not sure what you are talking about all I can say easy mods and so far works great not trying to be a wise guy their is a lot I just do not know . ford 3 g ? my motor sees 6k rpms once in awhile will this hurt the chevy alternator ?

[blykins]

Dry sump pumps are toothed like that. You can slide the belt off the pulley at any time and they are made to run like that.

[hauss]

Ok here is the latest alternator bolt on bottom was slightly bent causing alternator to not be square causing belt to come off. Going to replace with case hardened bolt for fix. I am really starting to like serpentine belts with auto adjusters. Never had so many issues with a darn belt before.