RJW

Some of you may recall my power steering hose re-route which allows replacement of the main drive belt without removing any hoses.

Here is another little mod that helps with belt wrap around the alternator. (not rocket science, and has been done before, i'm sure)

History: I am using a 2.9" maggie pulley and at the dyno, smoke was coming from the belt near the alternator. I had the idler pulley mounted on the upper alt. bolt as provided by maggie, but 2 things

1) It did stop the belt from coming off the alt. pulley, but i thought that it looked ugly, awkward and out of place, hanging up there, not to mention that it didn't help belt wrap much...so

2) I called maggie with my idea to relocate the pulley and they responded that for non-street applications, they already had a cure similar to mine...so that was good, but

I thought I would share this, in that it works well, looks better and is cheap.

I fabricated a spacer to mount & relocate the idler to another location.

My spacer is 1" diameter, .900" long and simply has a clearance hole for the 10mm bolt.

Any spacer between 3/4" and 1" dia and around 7/8" long would work, or a stack of washers would do as well. Other setups may vary a bit, so shimming may be required.

I simply removed the maggie idler and bolt, and re-installed the oem alt. bolt. I used the maggie stuff in the new location in conjunction with the spacer.

here are a couple of pictures



In the second picture, you can see the alu spacer behind the idler...no clearance issues with anything



This would even help stock sc pulley setups. look better (imo) and it's el cheapo...

Sorry that my engine and compartment are so dirty... but it's a work in progress..

update: The relocation caused about 1/4" more tension on belt (as measured on circumference of tensioner housing). In my case, this solved my belt slip problem (so far) w/o having to go to a crosscut pulley.

navy99vert

Am I missing somthing. I don't have an idler pulley mounted on the alt. on my Maggi. looks like a good ideal I done lost one belt that came off

RJW

Here is a shot of the before...(maggie solution) and IMO an eye sore!



You can probably get maggie to send you the idler w/bushing and longer bolt..call them and tell them you are loosing belts and you saw their alt. idler solution. I know a few people myself included that have gotten them gratis and then consider the spacer or washers to relocate.

I also got the tensioner L-brackets which help make the tensioner ***'y more rigid.

If anyone tries this with a really large sc pulley, please check that the belt will be long enough with the pulley relocated, and let us know.

RED99

I may have to try something like that. Mine chirps like a giant bird when the tranny shifts. And I have a 8 rib.

RJW

Can you identify the bird? Is it like 'CACAW CACAW'...

Just kidding

A better solution would be a 2 or 3 point mounted bracket that would allow you to get even more belt wrap around the alt pulley.

I already have a plan in the works, but maybe call maggie and ask Jason or whoever about their off-road bracket. Maybe you could put an 8 rib idler on it.

I drove hoodless for 2 days and my belt got a little wet. On the dyno, smoke was coming from around the alternator, so I needed to do something about it, in that alt belt wrap is not too good. I changed the belt and still had slippage.

comecorrect

What size belt are you using? Thanks!
MIKE

RJW

I am currently using a Dayco 5061055

It is a direct replacement for the oem maggie belt, but it has crosscuts.

btw: relocating the idler as I did, restores alt pulley belt wrap to pretty much what it was before your maggie install.

RJW

I have received some pm's asking about belt length with larger pullies, so...

Here is an easy way to find out if your current belt is long enough to do this mod if you are using a 3.2" or larger sc pulley.

1) Remove the idler and bolt that is mounted in the topmost alternator hole.

2) Remove the bolt where the idler pulley will be mounted (refer to the pictures)

3) With the idler mounted on its bolt, try to insert the bolt into the hole, while pushing down on the belt.

If you can do this and the tensioner is NOT bottomed out, then you should be good to go.

Make sure to install the OEM bolt back through the alternator...

Hope this helps.

dllhg

8 year bump No more pictures. Does anyone know where to put the idler pulley? I have the one over the alternator as well. Terrible belt slippage with my 3.1 despite putting smaller belt on. Wonder if you still need an upgraded tensioner with this mod.

NITRO UK

Hi , yeah no pics now , not sure if you have seen this but just in case

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...lternator.html

ECS have a tough tensioner, lots of available mounting positions , specifically for pd blowers , check it out on there site .

dllhg

Thanks. relocated it and still didnt fix slip. Tight as heck now too. Turns out it was a the rear belt. Loosened the three bolts then used Allen wrench to tighten. Zero screech and boost stays pegged at 7 PSI now =)

NITRO UK

Glad you got it sorted mate .
I'd like to think I have zero belt slip at the rear

~STOLEN~

Uhhhhh.......I NEED that ^^^^^^