Gate

My accessory belt seems to have well over an inch of slack at its longest stretch. Stays on well enough on its own when off or running, seems tight enough to function everything but worries me a lot. As far as I know, it's only supposed to be at 1/4 inch. And I'm pretty sure that there's no way to tighten the belt, only loosen it to take it off and put back on, but its supposed to spring back to the proper tightness on its own. I've done some research on accessory belts stretching and apparently it doesn't really happen. Is it possible it happened to mine? I thought there would be cracks on it before the point of stretching (if its even possible) but my belt doesn't have any cracks. No idea how old it is. Car has 205k miles. I wish I could just get a slightly shorter belt, but no money right now. Wonder what's up. Any thoughts?

Sorry no pics, camera got stolen a while back.

Almost forgot, Hank can you mow your lawn in a hurricane? Nope didn't think so hahahah

MooJohn

I stole this pic from another thread on the board. It was the first one I could find with a tensioner in view:



Just above & to the right of the arrow is the tensioner body, and there are 3 marks at almost the 12:00 position. The single arrow on the moving part of the tensioner is supposed to rest between these 3 marks. Where is yours?

Gate

oh man my arrow is almost an inch past those three marks (clockwise). But I see no way to grip it, i already have the pulley off cuz i cleaned it, but i cant understand how to adjust the tensioner, the only info i could find on that included steps about draining the coolant and removing timing covers, i didn't know i had to do that, i think that's just for installing a new one, my tensioner seems fine, the arrow is just an entire inch past the three marks, is there any way i can make my belt tighter??? how would the tensioner get like the way mine is anyways?

Gate

Sorry, one last bump, and now I'll actually post it in the right forum

MooJohn

Are you sure you have the right belt? The only way I can think of for the tension to be that loose, without a completely failed tensioner anyway, is for the belt to be too long.

Gate

As far as failed tensioner possibility goes for me, my arrow, which is supposed to be within the three marks, is an inch past the three marks. I'm pretty sure the tensioner is supposed to adjust itself through use of the belt, but an inch past the three marks sounds wrong. Still, I'm not sure if that means it's failing.

Anyways, the belt might be the wrong one, or it might have stretched (which I heard doesn't really happen). I'm going to Autozone tomorrow to compare it to a new one. We shall see what happens.

MooJohn

Get the Dayco belt. It's well worth the extra $8 over the Duralast house brand.

Gate

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