how can i find out when my kit was produced???? i am changing a shredded belt and i think i have the later style kit...my alt bracket is plain silver and not black.....i read that steve was going to a smaller belt (#1037) and i tried it but it wont reach :mad :mad so in the am i will get the #1045 belt and reinstall ...but i want to be sure the kit isnt going to shred another belt.....another strange question is...on the tensioner my pulley is smooth on the back side and has a lip on the front...the smooth side looks like the lip was intentionally ground off and made to be smooth ???????in vortechs directions it says that this pulley is supposed to be the"supplied smooth tensioner".......i wonder if this is the reason i shredded a belt????HELP me bro's :confused:

 

Your alternator bracket is the new style. The older ones like Steve01, av8or3, and I have are anodized black.

I was told by Vortech that there is a variance on the heads of some cars that require different spacers for the alternator bracket. Vortech had me replace the tensioner spacers on mine and that fixed the belt rubbing on the tensioner pulley lip that you mention. Next they had me replace the alternator bracket to head spacers (.100” longer than the spacers in the kit) to fix an alternator alignment problem that was causing the belt to move backwards and shred the back edge of the belt. This issue actually shaved 1 complete rib off of the belt turning it into a 5-rib belt. So far after these fixes mine is fine but I have not driven the car much because of the amount of salt and gravel on the roads…

The pulley that you are talking about has only one lip on it that faces outward.

Here’s something else to check. Make sure that you did not press the power steering pump pulley on too far. The pulley face should be even with the end of the shaft. I pressed mine on too far, about 1/10”, and I think that this may have been contributing to my second belt problem.



[Modified by VortechC5, 6:02 AM 1/28/2004]

 

Having a belt shred or jump off is probably a pulley alignment problem. Carefully check all your pulleys for security and make sure the boss on the
p/s pulley is FLUSH with the end of the pump shaft. My kit was an early kit
with the silver (not black) altenator mounting brackets. The belt troubles on my car would start when the belt would jump (towards the front of the car)
by one groove and then would proceed to shred one rib at a time. Vortech
sent me three spacers for the altenator mounting plate that were .040 longer
than the ones in the kit and a new set of unequal length spacers for the
tensioner that mounted it at a slight angle and resulted in the belt riding
more towards the center of the pulley (about 3/16 from the gate on the front
of the pulley). They also sent extra belts(s). Once this was installed my belt
problems disappeared. The smooth pulley for the tensioner should have the gate (or rib) facing the front of the car. Good luck Bud! BTW,Vortech was
very helpful once they knew I was having trouble. I delt with a fellow there
by the name of Chris (he's the guy that designed the kit).

 

i will get ahold of chris at vortech this am....my belt is getting shredded on the back side......when i pulled the car up on ramps yesterday it got worse really fast....

 

does you pulley with the outer only lip look like it is homemade???? it seems like someone ground off the inner lip with a grinder?

 

Mine doesn't look home made. It did have a little bit of casting flash on it but not enough to matter.

 

av8or3,

Did you always have the newer style alternator bracket or did you change it out? For some reason I thought that you had a real early kit like Steve01 and I do. I tried to get Vortech to send me the new style bracket but they were not interested in doing that.

 

No,I've always had the bright (aluminum) finish altenator bracket. But I still
had the alignment problems that were fixed with the new spacers. The
tensioner pulley on my car does look like the rear gate was ground off so I
can see why he would say that.

I'll be getting my s/c back from Vortech next Tuesday. They're replacing the
bearings and seals under warranty. By that time car will have been up on jacks for two weeks. I'll have that thing back in so fast it will make your head spin once I get my hands on it. Then HWYSTR will ride again. :steering: :smash:


[Modified by av8or3, 2:26 PM 1/28/2004]

 

I'm in the last stage of mine Vortech installation.
So I contact Vortech about the tracking problem you guys having.

Quote from Vortech "I believe the person in the forum is talking
about some of the first corvette kits that were available and when we first
became aware of the problem. This issue has been resolved and all of your
parts should be up to date."
Have I any reason to still be worried about pulley alignment problem?
And are your kits one of the first available?

Thanks Erik.



[Modified by Erra, 11:49 AM 1/31/2004]

 

I don't think that you need to worry. I met a guy about 3 months ago that had a new kit and he had had no problems at all.

 

my kit is newer also...i think i just have great luck :crazy: :crazy: i will go and trash the dyno again on monday and see if the belt does ok.......the belt really isnt that hard to change :yesnod: its only one bolt that takes a few minutes(i have a custom ground wrench) :thumbs:

 

A custom wrench eh? I made one of those too while I was installing mine... ;)

 

:) Nice to hear !!