Belt Keeps Shredding

[LuuisHernandez]

How’s it going, guys?
I have a 2013 with a Kenne Bell. I changed out the serpentine belt about 8 months ago. Recently, I was driving and car overheated. Checked it out and belt was destroyed lol. Engine coolant everywhere. Picked out the pieces, towed the car home, replaced the belt, refilled coolant, and all was good. I started to hear chirping and thought it was due to insufficient tension from the new belt.

Today I noticed the belt was misaligned on the KB pulley and the tensioner below. I aligned the belt before taking off and sure enough, on the drive home, the belt began to shred again. I replaced the belt once again with a cheaper auto zone belt until I figure it out. I got home and it’s still in its correct alignment. I don’t wanna drive it with the thought of another belt shredding and me being SOL.

Any ideas?


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[Mojo88]

Interesting problem. My first suspect would be pulley alignments. I would look even closer than you have, you say you found some mis-alignment already. There may be more.

My other thoughts would be to see if one of the pulleys might have a nick or sharp edge or some sort of damage somewhere on it, cutting the belt as it rotates.

Another idea is maybe one of the pulleys (or maybe the belt) has incorrect/incompatible ribs. All the pulleys and the belt would need to have the exact same rib pattern, or else pretty much instant destruction.

One final idea is perhaps something that the belt drives (alternator, water pump, A/c compressor, tensioner) is partially frozen. So (with belt off) make sure each and every pulley rotates easily by hand and smooth as butter.

Should be a relatively easy fix, once you find the problem. Lots of us running S/C at high rpm and we aren't eating belts.

Keep us posted please. I'd like to hear what it is when you figure it out (which you will)!

 

[DSG2003Mach1]

when you say it was out of alignment Im assuming it walked a rib or more either toward the radiator or toward the motor. That's indicative of a pulley alignment problem. either something is spaced wrong or a pulley isn't spinning true

 

[FJohnny]

My '14 (FRPP 2.3 Whipple) shredded the belt when I put on a smaller pulley. My brother's '19 F-150 (2.65 Roush TVS) shredded it's first belt that was supplied with the kit.

Both happened because of top pulley alignment. Both fixed with a shim behind the pulley to move it into proper alignment.

Good luck. Sucks when you lose a belt.

 

[LuuisHernandez]

Thanks for the replies so far. Taking a look at it now.

Funny part is that nothing has been changed on the setup for 30K miles. It was out of alignment towards the radiator. Just hoping overheating the first time didn’t cause an issue with water pump or anything.


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[DSG2003Mach1]

Thanks for the replies so far. Taking a look at it now.

Funny part is that nothing has been changed on the setup for 30K miles. It was out of alignment towards the radiator. Just hoping overheating the first time didn’t cause an issue with water pump or anything.


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ya it’s off to star happening out of the blue - same belt brand and size? Can’t hurt to check all the pullies are turning smooth/free

over heating is usually more of a concern about head gaskets. The pump should be fine

 

[SVTdreamin04]

Do yourself a favor and buy a gates laser alignment tool. It will take the guessing out of the equation. I bought one when my Cobra kept shredding belts. It’s a lifesaver.


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[SVTdreamin04]

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[SVTdreamin04]

My car never shredded belts until I threw a smaller pulley on the stock Eaton. My misalignment was at the alternator. The bracket was either built out of spec, or the alternator housing wasn’t correct. It was fine with the stock size pulley on the blower, but that belt would walk right off one rib with a 5 minute drive after the smaller pulley was installed.


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[LuuisHernandez]

My car never shredded belts until I threw a smaller pulley on the stock Eaton. My misalignment was at the alternator. The bracket was either built out of spec, or the alternator housing wasn’t correct. It was fine with the stock size pulley on the blower, but that belt would walk right off one rib with a 5 minute drive after the smaller pulley was installed.


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If I can’t figure it out today, I definitely will buy one. I’m terrified of getting stuck somewhere lol.


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[LuuisHernandez]

ya it’s off to star happening out of the blue - same belt brand and size? Can’t hurt to check all the pullies are turning smooth/free

over heating is usually more of a concern about head gaskets. The pump should be fine

First time it randomly went out, water pump quit running due to no belt and car overheated. I HOPE it’s not a head gasket.

Different brand since the new brand was all I could get my hands on at the time but same size.


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[DSG2003Mach1]

First time it randomly went out, water pump quit running due to no belt and car overheated. I HOPE it’s not a head gasket.

Different brand since the new brand was all I could get my hands on at the time but same size.


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google search the effective length of the old vs new belt, should be pretty damned close though. I have a hard time seeing the brand causing it to walk though. You may need to put a belt on it then just have the car idle and study the belt tracking from each pulley to see if you can see it moving to help narrow it down.

 

[LuuisHernandez]

Looks like my harmonic balancer has a sliiiight wobble. Gonna replace that and the belt just to be safe.


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[SVTdreamin04]

Looks like my harmonic balancer has a sliiiight wobble. Gonna replace that and the belt just to be safe.


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My drive pulley, which is driven off the crank had some wobble, but it wasn’t the cause of my issue. I thought it was, at first, but since caged lowers for 03-04 cobra’s aren’t the easiest to find in good shape, I held off on replacing it. I ran my car with the wobbling drive pulley for a couple years without issue.


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[LuuisHernandez]

My drive pulley, which is driven off the crank had some wobble, but it wasn’t the cause of my issue. I thought it was, at first, but since caged lowers for 03-04 cobra’s aren’t the easiest to find in good shape, I held off on replacing it. I ran my car with the wobbling drive pulley for a couple years without issue.


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I drove it a couple miles today and it held up. But the previous belt only had like 6 miles before it started to shred so gotta try it since it’s the only one with play.


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[SVTdreamin04]

I drove it a couple miles today and it held up. But the previous belt only had like 6 miles before it started to shred so gotta try it since it’s the only one with play.


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Keep us posted!


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[LuuisHernandez]

Finally got it changed out. Belt is holding up after driving about 30 miles so pretty confident it was the only culprit.


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[CobraBob]

Looks like my harmonic balancer has a sliiiight wobble. Gonna replace that and the belt just to be safe.

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Good to hear that so far your new belt is holding up after replacing the harmonic balancer.