Well Ive been throwing belts left and right for the longest time and this time when my belt shredded the front rib as it always does, I ran the car for a bit with the bad belt and noticed that the tensioner was bouncing like the tip of a fishing rod when your getting a nibble from a fish. I know the belt that is currently on it is shredded and could be causing this twitch, but do you think thats why Ive been shredding belts at high rpm? It's the origional tensioner with 100,000 miles. What do you guys think. Ive even had the pulleys aligned by amazon racing(One of the vendors on this site) and I'm still throwing belts.
Bad belt tensioner?
- Thread starter prochargedcobra
- Start date
LS1PUSSOUT
Banned
YES bad belt tensioner. Mine did the same thing, put the tensioner on it and it ran beautifully....Boost comes on alot smoother too. Id say there hp to be gained with a new tensioner.....:beer:
Did you go with the stock tensioner or do they make a better one.
LS1PUSSOUT
Banned
well if I were you I would go with a stock ford tensioner. They are supposed to be a little stronger because theyre made from steel. I bought mine from the parts store and its made from aluminum but hasnt caused me any problems. If your not running high boost then it really wont matter much which one you buy. If your running high boost then you need a strong tensioner so it doesnt break in half under high load. Some people have broken the steel ones. In that case you would need a custom billet tensioner. I know they make them for the 05+ cars but I dont know about any other year. Theyre expensive though.
Thank you so much. This has been an ongoing prob. Thanks for the info.
had the same problem with my car, new tensioner fixed the problem.
Which steel tensioner would you guys recomend?
LS1PUSSOUT
Banned
ford
Ford has both aluminum & steel tensioners. The steel one comes in a kit with a stock belt. I was told it could not be ordered separately.
LS1PUSSOUT
Banned
huh, i never knew about that. everyone ive talked to said they found a steel replacement, but ive never gone to ford looking one for myself so i cannot say.....
I had trouble last month and I thought it was my tensioner so I went to my dealer and did some parts surfing and that is what I was told so with the Vortech I knew the belt with the steel one would not fit so I picked up the aluminum version. Turned out to be a bad idler pulley bearing and spacer that came with my one month old Vortech:fm: Replaced it and the alt. as it had a bit of noise and all is well:-D
Well, I replaced the tensioner with a new one from ford and so far no problems. However, yesterday I noticed when under my hood when I blip the throttle up to about 3500 and let off the area of the belt between the alternator and the oil pump gets really wavy and the belt actually lifts up of the alternator pulley on decel for about a sec. My tensioner still twitches like the tip of a fishing rod. What is causing this to happen? I'm at a loss.:shrug: Is this normal? Will some of you guys go check and see if this happens when you do the same?
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LS1PUSSOUT
Banned
the twitching is normal. Only a manual tensioner or something with extremely strong springs is going to stay steady at idle. The tensioner will stop twitching once your at wot under a load (driving on the street). You sure you have the right size belt on there? Sounds like maybe the belt is a little long if its coming off the alternator under deceleration....
It's a 114 inch belt. The 113 5/8s belt was too tight and I couldnt get it to go on so I called procharger and they said that was the next biggest size they said I could go with.
If you are shredding belts, here are a few tips.
Get the ford steel tensioner. The aluminum ones break pretty easy (been there done that)
Check the play in all the pullies-idler pulley from ford and procharger. Make sure those bearings are all perfect
Check the belt alignement on the blower. From the side-site all the pullies and belts and make sure they are in line. It is possible you may need to shim something. I wound up shimming the blower slightly after I replaced the blower pulley.
Erich
Get the ford steel tensioner. The aluminum ones break pretty easy (been there done that)
Check the play in all the pullies-idler pulley from ford and procharger. Make sure those bearings are all perfect
Check the belt alignement on the blower. From the side-site all the pullies and belts and make sure they are in line. It is possible you may need to shim something. I wound up shimming the blower slightly after I replaced the blower pulley.
Erich
OK, thanks. I'll try that.
I thought my tensioner was on its way out and it turned out to be a bad bearing on my one month old Vortech idler pulley:rollseyes http://www.svtperformance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=431374&highlight=tensioner
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