WHAT, am I the only one to have this problem?

While attending the cruise last evening I kept getting little whiffs of a rubber burning smell along the way. When I got home I opened the hood to check it out only to discover the belt tensioner was froze up again. I replaced the bearing in it a couple years ago but have never heard of another another PCS member having this problem. The new bearing was a sealed bearing which one would think would last a lifetime, at least my lifetime.

So today the pully comes off and next week I will get another bearing pressed into it. As words of advice from Paul Steinberg, at least I kept the old one.
 
watch the quaility of the bearing being put in. Alot of them are now being made in china and not as good of quaility. If you can get a US one pay the little bit extra well worth it.
 
Well it looks like the bearing is rolling just fine this morning. I took the belt off, removed the bearing and it rolled freely in my hand. I reinstalled it with a new belt and it works great, again.

I think what may be happening is the "Q" is demanding so much power that it places a strain on the alternator, which slows it's rotation, yet the belt keeps moving at engine speed therefore burning the belt up.

Does that make any sense? :soapbox:

I'll know next time after putting in a new belt.
 
in a nut shell "yes" but if everything was correct it would stall the engine before it slipped the belt. but once you have heated the belt up to were it was hot enough to smoke it's toast. it will never hold again. make sure you have the proper width belt on. it should ride full on the pulley just under the lip with 100% of the v touching the pulley. the accessory should not be all the way either direction on the slot. your hoping for the center of the slot. the idler pulley would be used to take up the slack not to tighten the belt. if you get to much movement on it it will limit the contact on the alternator pulley. this will make it easier to slip. the Q takes so much current to operate that you really have to be top notch on every connection. it really is hard on the system.

now I'll show you some really worn out belts you'll see this alternator belt is so warn out that it no longer touches the sides of the pulley but is riding on the bottom of the grove. the AC belts are different sizes one is stretched more then the other and will not turn the power steering pump anymore. some enterprising sole used a shoulder bolt to tighten the alternator. got it done by adding washers to the front. then put the ground cable on a nut in the back of it. when that broke some cut rate mechanic just clamped everything to together with the vice grips and drove off with the car. the water pump belt was so loose that when you started the car the pump would not ever turn. he car sits today still in this shape and they are still driving it. some people got no respect. but remember this is a before pictures. some guys just believe that it ain't broke till it's in two.
 

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In Hudson another PCS member donated a couple belts to me since I gave up my spare for him. According to O'Reily parts the belt I was using from Advance Auto was wrong but never had an issue (before "Q"). After the Christmas parade (after "Q") I blew a belt so I installed this one and it got chewed up pretty good. This one rode high on the pulleys where as the others were deeper into the groove. This belt rides into the groove like your third picture there ED.

So I'm back to my old style belt and we'll see what happens. When activating the "Q" with all lights and other sirens operating, engine never stalls and the light barely dim. Go fiqure!

This is the belt that got chewed.
 

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What you have in your hand is a Dayco 17570 raw edge belt. In my opinion, Dayco belts are at the bottom of the quality list, since they are a raw edge belt. I prefer Gates in modern belts, and whenever I can find a cloth wrapped belt, that is my number one choice. The newer cog belts are supposed to run cooler, and they claim that as the belt gets hot, it actually will grab the pulley stronger. These are advertising claims, but I have yet to see any independent proof of the claims.
 
A thank you to those who have commented here

Last month, I had the oil changed on my daily driver, the 88 Lincoln Town Car. They mentioned to me that I needed to replace a fan belt. I said I would take care of it myself & sort of put it on the back burner. Well, this thread jogged my memory so I decided to replace it today. The guy who works on my tow truck said the belt looked like it was sitting low in the pulley. Upon further investigation, we discovered that the belt that was on the car was for the 302 engine with the larger 100 amp alternator, not the 75 amp one that is on the car! So thanks to y'all for giving me the push to replace it before it was a problem on the side of the road.
 
the right size belt should sit just below the lip of the pulley.if it's all ready riding low it got no place to go but the trash. you can see were the slipping has burned the rubber off and the cords are showing.
 
Well the "Burning up of the belt" continues. I had the Lifeliner out over the weekend and it blew another alternator belt. What I discovered was the belt tensioner bearing was loose causing a lot of play so the belt would not track properly.

I pulled the tensioner, pressed out the bearing, greased up the old one and pressed it back in. I then tampered around the outside edge hoping it will keep the bearing from becoming loose again. Remounted it, cranked it up, took her for a rough-fast drive and it worked fine.

What I need to do it locate another pully or get another one made for it. Anyone have an extra pulley laying arounnd or have access to one? This is what the belt tensioner looks like. Photo borrowed from Ed.

Much appreciated.

Richard
 

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some one else is going to be looking for one of them to. this one sounds dry along with the one in the air pump. so just how long does a car have to set around to get a pully this rusty anyway. now the strange part of this is that the body of this car is rust free even behind the fenders but stuff that would have any finish worn off like this set of pullies looks like it layed on the beach for years. if you having troubl with the bearing walking out of the stamp use some of the locktight bearing mount. that is made for that porpose.
 

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what are the dimentions, I have a few loose ones and if I got one I will send it to you. need the diameter, width, and pully depth and arbor diameter and bolt size.
 
what are the dimentions, I have a few loose ones and if I got one I will send it to you. need the diameter, width, and pully depth and arbor diameter and bolt size.

I'll check it out Kenn, thanks. I removed the pully and support bracket last night and turns out it is not the bearing in the pulling that is loose but rather the bolt that runs through the middle of the bearing which bolts to the support.

I'll be back at you.
 
all you need to do is replace that bolt. it should have been a machined shoulder bolt not a standard one. all most a press fit, so that the bearing turns on the race not the race on the bolt.
 
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