ausvette

I've done 3500 miles with no belt problems with the Vortech kit then during a club dyno day it peeled the front rib off the belt. Thought maybe the belt was shagged as the car had done probably 50 dyno runs getting the tuning right - we had misdiagnosed fuel pump issues which took a fair while to sort out.

Put a new belt on and it immediatelly jumped forward one groove on the balancer which pushes the edge of the belt half up the front lip on the balancer and results very quickly in the front rib on the belt being destroyed.

Balancer had a fair bit of runout in it and thought as I have a April 2003 Vortech kit with the old 4 small pins that it had probably broken the pins and balancer had moved. However pins were intact, we put a new balancer on and udated to the new single pin kit from vortech and new balancer has less runout but still has same problem that within approx 20 seconds of engine starting, revs staying at idle the belt jumps forward one groove on the balancer.

Seems something has gone drastically out of alignment since original install as its gone from happily doing 3500 miles to staying positioned for less than 10 seconds.

The belt feeds from the power steering pulley over an idler around the balancer and then up to the spring tensioner idler. I'm guessing that as it seems the problem is not the actual balancer that the problem is more likely to be caused by a belt misalignment in front of the balancer than behind it so is probably likely to be the power steering pump pulley ? I assume anything further away than the power steering pulley or the spring tensioner couldn't cause a problem at the balancer. Seems strange though if thats the case that the belt isn't having problems on the power steering pump pulley. The belt is pretty much flush with the front edge of the idler on the spring tensioner idler but theres no wear marks on the idler so I assume hasn't been rubbing against it there.

Anyone seen this particular alignment issue or got any ideas ?

Thanks,

Dave.


[Modified by ausvette, 8:59 AM 10/13/2003]


[Modified by ausvette, 9:01 AM 10/13/2003]

av8or3

Yes,I've seen it.Call Chris at Vortech and describe your troubles to him and he'll send you the spacers for the belt tensioner pully and the altenator
mount bracket.Once installed your troubles will be over. Same thing happened to mine (at about the same mileage). 22k miles later and still running with no trouble.

ausvette

Thanks Av8or3.

I have spoken to Vortech about these spacers. My kit was an April 2003 and has the silver (non-anodized) alternator spacers. My understanding is that these are the latest and there haven't been any updates to these.

Were your spacers which were replaced silver or black ?

corvette184

i have a used vortech on the way...i will watch this one :party:

Steve'01

I have also done this on my kit. Mine is 12/02. The old spacers where black. A couple of other things to check.
The idler below the SC pulley. The washer or spacer can become disported due to an over tightening the bolt. There is a TSB on this.
I would double check for the spacers being properly set. The 1.235 is the upper and the 1.277 is the lower.
You removed the power steering pulley with the install. The service manual says to make sure the shaft is flush with the pulley edge. Did it move?
I have read that you can use a laser to make sure all the pulleys line. This may be next.
I am about to go with the PS pulley that Haltech carries which is a slight under drive and aluminum (I have chipped the plastic pulley). Then I plan on using a slightly shorter belt. I have noticed that on my kit the tensioner pulley rides very close to the smooth idler, the belt rubs against its self in certain conditions, even after replacing it a couple of times. I have found belt residue on the intercooler and below the water-pump.

FYI the Gatorback seem quieter than the belt Vortech supplied. 4061045 or 6PK2655.
The short belt is a 4061037. I am not sure if this will fit with the stock pulleys.

:cheers:


[Modified by Steve'01, 7:36 PM 10/14/2003]


[Modified by Steve'01, 7:37 PM 10/14/2003]

ausvette

Thanks Steve. Thats some good info on stuff to check thanks. I've got 2 Gatorback belts from Summit Racing so I'll try one of them next.

With my kit the 2 belt tensioner spacers are the same length (1.277) but the rear bracket is recessed for the top spacer so the gap ends up smaller than for the bottom spacer. Just wondering if your bracket is recessed as well as running a shorter upper spacer ?

7LitreC5

I have an early kit like Steve01 and av8r3. Our brackets do not have a recess for the spacers. It is just a black anodized flat plate.

I just met a guy that has a kit that is only about a month old. His alternator bracket and spacers are all natural aluminum. Maybe they did that to cure the alternator grounding issue.

7LitreC5

I spoke too soon...

I just discovered that my belt jumped back 1 rib and turned my 6-rib belt into a 5-rib belt as it ground off the back edge of the belt.

Has anyone heard of this problem? I have the new spacers on and they are in in the correct locations. What a drag...

Mark

Steve'01

Dam, not cool Mark. Did you look to see how much tension the tensioner is taking up? If yours is anything like mine the tensioner will be almost fully un-sprung, or lose. This causes the belt to rub against its self at the tensioner and the idler pulley next to it. This causes the belt to have too much slack. I am going to go to a smaller belt. The next size smaller is 1037 instead of 1045. I have held off because I am going to go with the Mezeize pump as well as a new billet PS pulley. Halltech sells a slight under drive PS pulley. I think this may work out well with the shorter belt. My birdie belt chirp is also coming back. I think these issues may all be related to too lose of a belt. I have a solid tensioner but have not used it yet. I will be waiting, anxiously to hear what the fix is for you. :confused: :cheers:

7LitreC5

I checked my tensioner and I have probably 5/16" of space between the belt as it passes over the tensioner pulley and the opposing run if the belt. I've autocrossed, drag raced, run on a road course and never seen this.

It happened at the drag strip last weekend. The only difference between running last weekend and all other previous runs was that I was running on drag radials. I wonder if launching on much stickier tires is causing something odd to happen.

MySea6

I would check for runout in your idler pulley (engine belt). mine had way too much and allowed one rib to be cut off by the "wings" of the blower pulley just above it. I also waited too long to replace and it disentegrated wasting the ps pump pulley and the blower bracket boss. it turned out that the new idler pulley was an updated design as well.

btw - I also went with the Katech solid tensioner and all is good. no more belt bouncing off and shredding on a road course :thumbs:


[Modified by MySea5, 8:21 PM 10/19/2003]

7LitreC5

MySea5,

That particular idler is the one that my belt has been chirping on so that may be the/a problem. I was looking at it today and my theory is that the blower jackshaft pulley is the one that cut the rib off of the belt. The back edge of it is sharp. It sounds just like what yours did.

I'll have to check out aht Katech solid idler as well. Steve01 has one that he's going to put on his.

av8or3

The spacers that came with my kit (Dec '02) were silver and were shorter than the ones that Vortech sent me to fix mine (by about .040).They were
sent to replace the ones under the altenator mount bracket.They also sent (2)
spacers of unequal length to go under the belt tensioner to correct a problem
they were having with the belt riding up over the gate on the tensioner.Talk
with Chris at Vortech (he's the guy that designed the kit) and he should be able to help you resolve this.

7LitreC5

Thanks av8or3, I'll be calling Chris today. Mine is a Nov 02 kit.

I am bound and determined to get this fixed and make it reliable!


[Modified by VortechC5, 8:16 AM 10/20/2003]

7LitreC5

I just talked to Chris at Vortech. Apparently they should have sent me the new shorter alternator spacers when they sent me the new shorter tensioner spacers. On some cars, but not all cars, there is an alignment problem with the alternator pulley that can get worse once the tensioner alignment is fixed (or at least that was my understanding).

The parts are on the way now along with a new belt. They are also sending me the updated crank pinning kit.