Belt issues

[dazwelding]

I am continuing to tear up supercharger belts- IE: shred one rib off of the belt, and I am looking for input on what the cause may be. Here is what I have done/found so far:
Going back to the beginning of this issue was July of 2021 when I got home from the Dyno. I drove her home from the dyno and found the belt to be missing a rib when I got home. I took it back to Pro-Dyno and they checked the pulley alignment for me and all was well, but they showed me that my oem lower pulley bushings were shot and recommended to replace it with a Metco pulley, Metco Pulley Bracket, and an Innovator West balancer, which I subsequently did. Just to add content, they knew I was going to to do the work myself, and I was ordering the parts online- so they did not just try to upsell me as they got nothing for their advice.
After the new harmonic Balancer was installed, I drove it and attended 1 track weekend (Roebling Road) with no issues. At the next track weekend (Carolina Motorsports Park), on Sunday afternoon, I tore a rib off.
I was convinced at this point the tensioner needed replaced, so I upgraded to the American Racing Solutions tensioner.
I attended the next track day at CMP again and I opened the hood after my first session and to my surprise, my belt had shredded a rib again. I ran the rest of the day this way and it was fine, but obviously I want to get to the point I have a full rack of ribs on my belt!
I then purchased the Dayco pulley alignment laser tools and sure enough, just as Pro-Dyno found, my pulleys are aligned. I checked over the weekend, and I checked tonight before dinner, and I intend to check a few more times, but I have yet to find one of the pulleys out of alignment.
So, next I am thinking something is moving under load??? Is there something else I am missing?? What do you all think??

 

[DSG2003Mach1]

Are they being checked with a laser?

Sounds like something is off by like half a C hair which makes it more difficult to figure out. Sadly it’s be easier to find if it was just killing belts left and right

Is it eating engine or radiator side?

 

[cobracide]

I have an older metco setup where the alt pulley has a separate spacer. My setup was fine until Ford tards replaced my alternator, sure enough strpped the back rib. I am almost positive that they left the alt spacer off. The new metco alt pulleys have this machined in. Have yet to address this as one belt rib is not really that big of a deal to me.

 

[dazwelding]

Are they being checked with a laser?

Sounds like something is off by like half a C hair which makes it more difficult to figure out. Sadly it’s be easier to find if it was just killing belts left and right

Is it eating engine or radiator side?

Yes, Pro Dyno and I both used the Dayco Laser kit.
Radiator side every time.

 

[dazwelding]

I have an older metco setup where the alt pulley has a separate spacer. My setup was fine until Ford tards replaced my alternator, sure enough strpped the back rib. I am almost positive that they left the alt spacer off. The new metco alt pulleys have this machined in. Have yet to address this as one belt rib is not really that big of a deal to me.

Interesting, I have a PA performance alternator I installed as it came from them- ie I did not install any spacers. Maybe I need to look harder at the alternator?

 

[MG0h3]

Interesting, I have a PA performance alternator I installed as it came from them- ie I did not install any spacers. Maybe I need to look harder at the alternator?

Damn near all belt alignment issues are the alternator or an aftermarket lower issue.


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[03' White Snake]

Is your timing cover or pulley bridge painted or powder coated?

I was having the same issue. I believe my issues are fixed now. The powder coat shrunk under heat and compression of the bolts being tight. I just tore my engine down and found 2 loose bolts on the pulley bridge. I think this was allowing a tiny bit of flex in the upper pulley bridge and tearing off a rib. I removed all the powder coat from the mounting surfaces. I should know soon if it fixed my issues or not.

So just something to check.

 

[Blkkbgt]

Stupid question but I'll ask anyway.

Have you checked the corresponding groove on each grooved pulley for damage?

I had a problem with one rib on my old vortech setup that would get destroyed quickly.

I replaced my idlers, tensioner, check the blower alignment and nothing changed.

Pulled the blower off and found a sharp ding on an outer groove. Replaced the pulley and never had another problem.

 

[dazwelding]

Is your timing cover or pulley bridge painted or powder coated?

I was having the same issue. I believe my issues are fixed now. The powder coat shrunk under heat and compression of the bolts being tight. I just tore my engine down and found 2 loose bolts on the pulley bridge. I think this was allowing a tiny bit of flex in the upper pulley bridge and tearing off a rib. I removed all the powder coat from the mounting surfaces. I should know soon if it fixed my issues or not.

So just something to check.

Wow, no powder coating for me. Good to know though

 

[dazwelding]

Stupid question butt I'll ask anyway.

Have you checked the corresponding groove on each grooved pulley for damage?

I had a problem with one rib on my old vortech setup that would get destroyed quickly.

I replaced my idlers, tensioner, check the blower alignment and nothing changed.

Pulled the blower off and found a sharp ding on an outer groove. Replaced the pulley and never had another problem.

I will definitely look for this next. I haven’t noticed any damage, but I have not specifically looked for it either.

 

[dazwelding]

Ok, so no damage on any of the pulleys. I checked again with the laser and they are all aligned.
My current next attempt is to either cut down one of the damaged belts to maybe 6 ribs and re-install, or just install the belt with the undamaged side out and try to see with the fresh edge what is going on. I just don’t know if I will be able to simulate real track type conditions to get the belt to replicate whatever is happening.
Any other suggestions?

 

[can04cobra]

I had a similar issue it would be good until id get on it. Could drive all day and be ok once I would step on it a bit it would walk over to rad side. All.pullies looked lined up. It was either missing a spacer or washer behind the metro bracket or behind a pulley it was about 5yrs ago memory is a bit foggy. Seemed when I'd go into boost there was enough flex front he torque that it would go out of line and then when you let off it would flex.back and kick the belt over.

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[dazwelding]

I am back trying to figure out my belt issue. I made some short videos, but I cannot get them to post, so I will do my best to explain what I am seeing. When I rev the engine, I see the belt ride up onto and over the front of the lower pulley, and it immediately returns to be centered on the pulley at idle. I can even hear it slap back onto the pulley after I release the throttle. At idle and low RPM it looks fine.
Again, this has happened with the stock lower and 2.76 upper, the metco stock lower and 2.76 upper, and currently I have the 3.1" upper and the 8.6" lower.
I have the PA performance alternator, and I pulled the pully off yesterday to see what if any spacers where behind it. There are no spacers behind the alternator pulley.
I also re-verified yesterday with the dayco laser alignment kit, and everything was aligned- or at least nothing was way wacked out. I have a new belt on it also.

Anyone have other things to try??

Any suggestions on getting the videos to post? I used my iPhone video, tried to post from my phone and from my laptop. Each video is less than 10MB and I tried posting one at a time.

 

[cobracide]

If it is an older alternator pulley, I suspect it's missing the spacer. Otherwise, you should see ridge machined into it.

 

[dazwelding]

If it is an older alternator pulley, I suspect it's missing the spacer. Otherwise, you should see ridge machined into it.

Everything is new, or at the most on the car for only a year. I have 1mm spacers for the alternator pulley, but that would push the pulley the wrong way. I almost filed down in the alternator pulley to get it to move towards the engine, but I was afraid I would end up filing it crooked and jack it up worse. Although I could have a little machined off of it.

 

[olympic]

What you are describing happening to your belt (moving forward on the crank pulley with RPM) can only be caused by the alternator pulley being too far forward, or perhaps the crank pulley being too far back. And it would have to be off by quite a bit for the belt to move like that.

Have you calibrated the laser tool? I just bought the Gates equivalent and it comes with a tool to calibrate/align the laser. It's really finnicky and I must have spent an hour getting it perfect. It's also an easy mistake to center the laser and target tools on different groves.

My car recently frayed the front edge of the belt as well. I bought the laser tool and surprisingly the alternator and tensioner were perfect but the supercharger pulley was off 1.75mm (1/2 rib) to the rear. I never noticed this issue until now because I guess I changed the belt often enough in the past but this latest one has been on there for a few years.

 

[cobracide]

It doesn't have to be be that far off at all. All sorts of issues here with 1/16". Just for clarification this is the rib tward the FRONT of the car being shredded off?

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[dazwelding]

It doesn't have to be be that far off at all. All sorts of issues here with 1/16". Just for clarification this is the rib tward the FRONT of the car being shredded off?

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Yes, tearing off the front rib, ie on the radiator side.

 

[dazwelding]

Since I cannot figure out how to post the video, here are screenshots at RPM at the moment the belt pops over the top of the front of the lower pulley. Again, these are at RPM, it doesn’t look like this at idle or when it is not running.

 

[dazwelding]

What you are describing happening to your belt (moving forward on the crank pulley with RPM) can only be caused by the alternator pulley being too far forward, or perhaps the crank pulley being too far back. And it would have to be off by quite a bit for the belt to move like that.

Have you calibrated the laser tool? I just bought the Gates equivalent and it comes with a tool to calibrate/align the laser. It's really finnicky and I must have spent an hour getting it perfect. It's also an easy mistake to center the laser and target tools on different groves.

My car recently frayed the front edge of the belt as well. I bought the laser tool and surprisingly the alternator and tensioner were perfect but the supercharger pulley was off 1.75mm (1/2 rib) to the rear. I never noticed this issue until now because I guess I changed the belt often enough in the past but this latest one has been on there for a few years.

I will have to check the calibration. It was very challenging getting the tools on the pulleys in the same grooves for sure.
What did you do to fix your alignment?