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2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
C5 of Year Winner (performance mods) 2019
Originally Posted by helga203
Sorry, i just have to throw this in here. I bought the A&A 10 rib set up and had 0 problem no adjustment at all. I can not see people buying a kit that you have to work on it to get it align. Paying this kind of money and it not plug and play just don't make sense to me. We work on these dame cars enough. But buying something and adjusting the most critical part of a S/C set up just does not make sense. I'm just talking in general.
P.S. i don't know if it came with the car already and again seems like once it's set it's works prefect. I'm just talking about putting a critical part of the set up.
same here, literally all that had to be done with a&a's 10 rib bracket was bolt it on and go... no fancy adjustments or anything and it's been that way for the last 2 years without a single belt issue... your's truly loves to blame everyone else instead of the subpar product but he's trying to make money off of us after all so the more you have to go back to them for help the better
at least you found your problem! that thing is mulched
Yeah man, but I believe this was intentionally done. There weren't any signs of bearing wear/damage on the idler. I can only guess this was done to correct a previous belt issue.
I had to weigh my options because that bracket and idler would have been $300+ to replace. At this point in my build, I don't have the patience to finesse the pulley system. I tend to always overbuild or do things some may find unnecessary. I have thousands invested in my engine so I'm being extra cautious at this time. I don't want any belt issues to cause more problems.
Saying that, I took the plunge and purchased the new A&A bracket. I pray it's as advertised so I can get this car finished up. I've been a car guy my whole life and I understand there will always be challenges, but I wanted a solution that would require the least amount of my time and this appeared to be it.
I'm sure you realize that some moron (funny that Neutron82 tried this too) did some serious shotty machine work. That was not done from a bearing seizing. Someone tried to machine it themselves.
I can get a properly machined tensioner out to you today if you like, they are not very expensive.
Now the rest of you can apologize to us at anytime.
Waltbsc
I have spoken to you about this along with the fella helping you on a conference call. I ask that the tensioner be taken off and this checked because it so clearly looked as though something was wrong with the alignment of the idler. I am not sure but I have never heard from you again and was waiting for a call to see the result of taking the tensioner off. I havent looked at the forum for a few days and now I see this. That is clearly not a tensioner that was machined but one that something hacked to do a backyard mod to get the dimension needed that are machined onto the tensioner used by ECS. It takes a little more the knowing what the part number is to making these work. This is not an ECS tensioner that was ground on. I sure wish you would have contacted me again and this problem could be over and done with.
Guys, I know ECS does not charge that much for a correctly machined tensioner that anyone needs to go an do this. This hack job that was done by someone for whatever reason has created allot of headaches needlessly.
The ECS tensioner is remachined on a cnc mill in 3 different areas.
They are done 50-100 at a time and always on the same fixture and for that matter the same machine has been used for everyone of that style which has been used for many years now. I know because I do them!
I also included a pic of a machined area where the idler is bolted. Obviously no comparison.
bob
Originally Posted by waltbsc
Okay, I'm not sure how to interpret this, but we were able to remove the tensioner. The bracket itself doesn't appear to be bent which is good.
The idler pulley isnt level, see pics.
I'm going to take it apart and see what it looks like.
Bob - Yes sir we did speak and I really appreciate your time. As we can all agree, this was not something done by yourself or ECS. I can only assume the previous owner of my car modified the tensioner.
I will say when I got the car, it didn't throw any belts. I only had the opportunity to drive it a couple times before a valve broke and I decided to have everything rebuilt.
During reassembly I encountered the belt issue. As you can see in one of the pics, the idler pulley is clearly tilted towards the block and I assumed this was the cause of my problem. When we adjusted the tensioner to be plumb, that made it worse.
Since I didn't trust any part of that assembly I looked at ECS website and it was $324. I couldn't help but wonder if the previous owner had belt issues and this was his fix. I just don't have the time in my life at this time for trial and error when it comes to alignment.
I understand everything has to be perfect and being somewhat of a novice I was slightly intimidated by the requirements. I was told even using gasket maker in lieu of a steel gasket for the water pump could cause issues.
As I previously stated, I made the decision to spend 3x as much on the A and A setup and I'll be honest and state it's IMPRESSIVE. Maybe that was a hasty/costly decision, but the alignment was absolutely dead on perfect when it was installed yesterday. From every angle with no adjustments needed.
I will be selling this car as I lost interest during the rebuild. I purchased a V Wagon and I want to ensure everything is right. I've been screwed so many times I'll lose my *** on this deal, but I will be able to sleep at night and know I did the right thing even though it wasn't the best financial decision and I'm okay with that.
glad that worked out for you... now that you can drive the car without belt issues it will make you feel differently about selling it
The car is a BEAST and downright scary on the streets, almost too much. It made 850 on 10 degrees at 17psi. I bought this car to run 1/2 mile events.
Having a 3.5 and 6 month old, reality sunk in and I truly don't have the time right now. My little girl loves cars and I don't feel comfortable putting her up front. The family can all fit in the wagon which is great right now. I can see myself getting into a vette later in life
I understand your decision, especially moving to the V with family. I parked my cars for years due to the same reason but of course it was well worth it. Now they are a little older and are getting interested in the cars so I have been slowly working on getting my cars back on track.
As far as this whole scenario I feel there is a handful of forum members (aka Nuetron) who really steered you wrong simply for their own amusement. We could have sent you a tensioner by itself for under $100 shipped, but they decided to put the bug in your ear that the kit that powers so many of the fastest stock bottom end Vettes, (LS1-LS6-LS2-LS3-LS7) not even getting into the built engine results, is not up to snuff.
There was a time when this section of the forum was the best section going, but a handful of newer members really have just destroyed it. Shame really but many vendors won't even advertise here because of them and you just found out why with a nice hit to your wallet to prove it.
This forum is supposed to be here to help others and these guys did the exact opposite for you, sorry it worked out that way but hopefully others can learn from this and not take advice from these individuals who are not here for your best interest.
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
C5 of Year Winner (performance mods) 2019
Originally Posted by DOUG @ ECS
I understand your decision, especially moving to the V with family. I parked my cars for years due to the same reason but of course it was well worth it. Now they are a little older and are getting interested in the cars so I have been slowly working on getting my cars back on track.
As far as this whole scenario I feel there is a handful of forum members (aka Nuetron) who really steered you wrong simply for their own amusement. We could have sent you a tensioner by itself for under $100 shipped, but they decided to put the bug in your ear that the kit that powers so many of the fastest stock bottom end Vettes, (LS1-LS6-LS2-LS3-LS7) not even getting into the built engine results, is not up to snuff.
There was a time when this section of the forum was the best section going, but a handful of newer members really have just destroyed it. Shame really but many vendors won't even advertise here because of them and you just found out why with a nice hit to your wallet to prove it.
This forum is supposed to be here to help others and these guys did the exact opposite for you, sorry it worked out that way but hopefully others can learn from this and not take advice from these individuals who are not here for your best interest.
riiiiiighhhhtt, you know all about that don't you??... but hey, now his car runs how it should
As it could have for under $100, but you got em' this time, congrats. Way to help out the Corvette community. With friends like you no one needs enemies.
We literally make nothing on selling just a tensioner so you didn't hurt me, you hurt the OP, smooth move.
07-04-2017, 10:33 AM
... how does the bearing look?... I wonder if it was just poor machining (if you want to call that machining) or the bearing failed and ate it up
... now that you can drive the car without belt issues it will make you feel differently about selling it
