Anyone out there have problems with their belt walking off the pulley?

Sad story...just had a D-1SC ATI Procharger installed and everything seemed good to go (dynoed @ 545RWHP/463ftlbtorque !!!), and I got on it hard and heard a POP! Popped the hood and the sound insulation on the bottom side of the hood was shredded where the serpentine belt would have hit it. The belt had walked off, but by only one rib, and was now functioning fine on 5 of 6 ribs....weird or what? It was no longer walking off the pulley.

Since then, a new belt has been installed with the same problem. The tensioner & pulleys have been messed with trying to get the belt to not "walk". No luck thus far. What is weird is when the SC is turned backwards, the belt walks back on to the pulley.

In summary: it's working fine with only 5 of 6 ribs, it walks off when the car is on, and when the SC is turned backwards, it walks back up to where it should be and then remains in the proper position.

Anyone out there with a clue as to what can be done?

 

Do you use a laser alignment tool to align all of the pullies when you installed the kit? It sounds like your alignment is off.

Mark

 

I found my pulleys were off by an entire rib. This caused the belt to shred after less than 800 miles. Use the Gates Laser Alignment tool .... I found one for about $120.00. I made all new shoulder bushings to correct the misalignment.

 

I had the same problem about 7 months ago, Arnold (gotjuiced?) fixed it for me.

He had to shim the brackets on the D1SC....

 

Like the others have said, it's probably just a basic alignment problem. Check to make sure every pulley is aligned properly. Just to be on the safe side, I'd recommend checking your crank pulley and make sure it's not backing out. When I had the old ATI kit, my belt kept sliding off the tensioner. It would climb over a rib or two and operate like that. I found that my crank pulley was backing out. Nice avatar, btw.

 

I too had the same problem and ended up shimming one of the ribbed pulleys. Never lost a belt but am on my second and have not put a new one on since the adjustment so I know for sure the problem was solved. It was off 1/16" off. I have some play in the belt and will go one size down on the new one soon.

Brian

 

Thanks for the inputs guys. It looks like it is fixed. It was noticeably sliding off the pulley before today. Xtreme in Tempe took a look at it and I guess they replaced the bearing (that was evidently bad), and flipped the pulley to the other side after experimenting with it for quite some time. It appears to be running normal and no sign of slipping or "walking" off. Hope the belt doesn't have anymore problems. Any signs that I should be looking out for?

BTW -BlackMagicC5...viper driver, by chance?

 

Nope, I wish!!! I would do just about anything for the chance to take the controls of one. I am a pilot though. I fly general aviation aircraft, anything from cessna's to pipers, twins to experimentals. My favorite, the Pitts Special.

How about you?

 

when was your D1 manufactured - if it ws RECENTLY - and it is a TRUE ATI kit as mine is, check the pulley on the supercharger and see how much play there is "in and out" - Mike from AZ Power and Sound spoke to a guy at ATI named Lance and between the 2 of them it was decided that the new design had what they thought to be a machining flaw and the pulley actually pulled out of the D1 twice the "normal" amount that is "tolerable"
the D1 that is on my car was put in in august - and apparently that's when the new "design" came out - so needless to say, my car's been tied up for over 2 months now with no word from ANYONE as to what's happening!

 

BlackMagic- You're looking at it (avatar)...got a couple hours in a S2-B...fun stuff! That lil' plane can do so much more crazy s#!t than the mighty Viper.

Togo- YES, it was ordered from them in October - a true ATI Procharger. Procharger did not know what was going on and seemed clueless as to why this was happening. What do you mean "normal" tolerance of pulling out (sts)? This does not sound good. It seems to be riding fine right now. It has ~ 100 + miles of not so easy driving on it since it was "fixed".

 

TOGO- It's happening again...This time once it started eating itself, it went fast and is now down to 2 of 6 ribs. I'm having the car trailered to the shop and I'm hoping that it can be resolved! I'm with your thinking on this one - that it's the pulley, and not a misalignment. Everything checked out good for alignment. I do not know what's the deal with this ATI pulley, only that it should not be acting up like this. Is there an ATI sponsor here on the forum I could talk to?

 

not that i know of - but i worked with both Lance and James (James is the MANAGER) at ATI - their phone number (which i have conveniently stored in my cell phone) is 913-338-2886 i would call the "front desk" number and ask for tech support - check the play in the pulley too - take the belt off and pull it in and out and measure the play - they told me an acceptable amount of play was 1/8" (i think) and i had double what they deemed acceptable (so i had 1/4" if that were the case)
they said they replace the seals and a few other thing - which i'll find out tomorrow when i go visit my car. i suggest calling them and getting started - as they are SLOW to get work done - they got mine on dec. 20 and they just sent it back to us jan 11 - perhaps it had to do with the 2 holidays in there - but i'll never know!

good luck to you and i'll update if/when something comes up - if we get it back and it still shreds, you can bet they're gonna catch he!! due to the fact that it cost me $44 to ship it to them, PLUS the removal and reinstallation fees! so we'll see what happens

***EDIT*** forgot to mention that ATI is in KANSAS - so check your time zone difference before calling - oh, and also, James is kinda bad about returning messages, so you may have to call him more than once before he returns a call to you!

 

Procharger-some things never change.

 

now there's some valuable input

 

Thanks Togo, I'll give'em a call.

 

didja get a chance to call them today?
wondered what they said

 

Well I took the car to Xtreme and they figured out the problem & fixed it! The belt would only move off "track" when the car was cranked...that was what got the belt moving off the pulley. I guess they called Procharger and told them the story, and they mailed off a new pulley and tensioner. They mailed off a pulley with a different lip on it and said that now when they crank the car, the belt still moves, but it bumps against the lip and moves back to where it should be. After the cranking is done, the belt rides normal at all RPMs. They said they've never heard of this happening before - "cranking causing the belt to walk off". I think the tensioner that they installed also helped. Heck, I'm happy, the belt after about 25-35 cranks has no wear on it, no fraying, and thank God, no walking off the job problems! THANKS XTREME!

 

cool - glad they got it worked out.
i wonder if that will be resolving my problem too?
they replaced the idler pulley on the tensioner and actually rebuilt my supercharger.
time will tell!
thanks for the update
to clarify - did you get a new crank pulley also?
or was it just the idler pulley on the tensioner that has the new "lip"?