Belt Tension

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sjpitts

sjpitts

Joined
Jun 9, 2003
Threads
146
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978
Location
Mesa, Arizona
Ok, I am part way though my cooling system rebuild. I managed to get the old radiator out, the system flushed somewhat, and the PHH changed.

I got looking at the belts, and I decided to change them while I had the system all apart. It kills me to pay the inflated price (almost 30 bucks) that the local deal will charge for the belts, but I did not plan ahead far enough to get them from CDAN. At least I was smart enough to get the radiator, fan clutch and other stuff from CDAN

Anyway, the FSM says to use some fancy tension tool to determine the proper tension on the belts. This tool is not available rental at my local auto parts store-- so how can I best approximate it? I wll need to do it twice, once for the AC and once for the alternator belt.

If there is no other way, can I buy one of these tension gauge tools anyware?

Thanks

Jared
 
seems like a "consensus" of sorts (but then who knows how these things get started...?) is that about a 1/2" of deflection while pushing with a "normal" (?) amount of force with your bare fingers should be OK.

FWIW, I did that, aligned marks on the 2 belts, ran the engine, and the marks are no longer aligned. Slip? Anyway, I'd rather have a limited bit of slip than a fawked bearing...

Will mark them again to see...
E
 
Anyway to define "normal"? I guess that is the whole problem.

You would think that you could do this accurately with a fish scale-- if you had an idea as to how pounds it is suppposed to take to get to 1/2 inch of deflection.

Maybe I will see if I can find out anyting about the tools cited in the FSM-- maybe they qantify what is is they are measuring and how they measure it.

Jared
 
[quote author=sjpitts link=board=2;threadid=17157;start=msg166356#msg166356 date=1085881269]
Anyway to define "normal"? I guess that is the whole problem.
[/quote]

sort of, press firmly but not to the point your fingers are uncomfortable along the longest length of the belt, if it makes you feel any better 99% of the cars on the road have belts tensioned by feel, also remember to re tighten them after the first drive, and recheck them again in a few days, if you get a line on the tool let us know as I would like to have one

this was a long time ago, but IIRC my Nissan manual gave a spec of somewhere around 1/2" deflection at I think 22pounds of force, that may not be it but it is close,

Eric I lined up the alt belts as well once when I put new belts in and again when I installed the alt idler, it did not last past the first start, the belts feel good and make no noise,
 
They need to be about "that" tight :D
 
Ok, this is still buggin me. I set it to "normal" and I am not convinced it is right. My twin belts are no longer aligned.

I am thinking of finding a gauge. I have not found much luck at the local auto parts places, but I did find a couple on ebay.

The FSM recommends gauges by Borroughs or Nippendenso. I did not have much luck finding those on ebay, but I did find a kent moore that looks just like the Burroughs.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=2480284338

That looks cheap enough

Here is another-- this looks different-- but I think it is the same type of tool--- I think it just has an extension that would make it easier to measure belts in a confined space.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4305473246

And Here is an actual Borroughs one-- it looks the same as the FSM, but it is a bit more money.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=2480785521

What do you guys think-- any of these look like it would be worth a shot. I wish I new what these things retailed for, and if there was a cheaper source out there.

Jared
 
I used a Kent Moore (on loaner from a fellow employee) a couple of weeks ago. He had just bought it new at around $140 :o. Kind of difficult to use on the inner alt. drive belt, so I used it to set the outer one on the lower limit of the spec., because for whatever reason the inner one seemed a little smaller, either that or the travel on the inner is a little bigger, which doesn't seem right. The belts were an OEM matched pair. Anyways, seemed to work okay ...hopes it is right.

I'd be a little leary about buying one used (if that's what you were looking at). They seem a little sensitive and easy to screw up (get off calibration) if you don't use them right.

:beer:
Rookie2
 
I realize this is an old post, but I thought I'd chime in on the gauges. The best luck I had was looking on eBay for used ones. For new ones, I did find the Borroughs gauge on some site that was for one of those mobile truck tool sellers. (Sorry, can't remember if it was Snap-On or ?) Anyway, new it was $165 for the same ones I was finding on eBay for about $40 used. I ended up buying two on eBay. The first said "Robinair" on the front, but looked identical to the Borroughs from the picture, right down to the colored sections for different weight ranges. When I received the tool, I noticed that it was actually made by Borroughs as it had "Borroughs" cast in the metal on the back of the gauge, This gauge also came with the original paperwork showing that gauges that are Kent-Moore are also Borroughs (which are also Robinair), and also SPX. So while all of the Borroughs gauges were getting extra high bids, the Kent-Moore ones were priced more reasonably. Now why did I end up getting two? Because the first one was of the type shown in the factory repair manual as the smaller hand-held Borroughs unit, which I couldn't fit on the belts in my LX450 without having the reading thrown off by the gauge being impeded by some engine part somewhere. So I sold this one and got one of the ones from the manual that has the arm extended down and off to one side. This design works so much better! I can tell you this, however. There are gauges that work for serpentine belts that looks the same as the ones that work on v-belts, that look the same as the ones that work on timing belts, that look the same as the ones covering a certain range, that look the same as the ones covering another different range of weights.... I had to calibrate mine as I ended up with the second gauge in the right design but made for timing belts rather than v-belts. Calibrating wasn't impossible, but it was quite a pain even with the instructions on that original paperwork mentioned above. I literally had 135 pounds worth of stuff (according to my bathroom scale) hanging from an old v-belt which was suspended from a rafter in the garage. Once you've safely got this precarious set-up, you attach the gauge to the old belt holding all that weight and make sure it says 135. If not, you've probably got the wrong gauge for that type of belt (like I did). But rather than start shopping for a third gauge, I went ahead and just marked my dial in ten or fifteen-pound increments from 145 down to 50 so that I could just use this gauge.
 
Thanks for the info J

Does hanging 130 pounds from a belt get you 130 pounds of tension or 65 pounds? are belts cal;ibrated that way? as in combined load on both halves of the belt?

woops almost forgot

Welcome :flipoff2:
 
RavenTai,

Thanks for the welcome! Good question, which I should have mentioned. The instructions say to cut the old belt in half first, so you are getting the full 130.
 
cool that works, nice calibration check,

gonna have to get me one of them fancy belt tools, now I know what I cna do to trust it.
 
jsmith8918 said:
RavenTai,

Thanks for the welcome! Good question, which I should have mentioned. The instructions say to cut the old belt in half first, so you are getting the full 130.
Click to expand...

How'd you attach 130 pounds to that limp noodle?

Welcome to the Dark side! :D

:beer:
Rookie2
 
It was a bit of a trick utilizing C-clamps and bailing wire. I know there are better ways, but I wanted to get it done with what I had rather than making a special trip to the hardware store.
 
Wow. :rolleyes: You guys are real serious about your belts arenchya?

Just tighten'em up man.

You did get Toyota belts right? From my experience non-oem lasts only a little while and then makes you think that your a/c pump seized when in all reality it was just the crappy belt disentegrating.

Hmm. After reading that, maybe I should be so serious about mine too.

Nah. :flipoff2:
 
FYI, there's no need to index the belts by lining up their marks. There's no way the marks are going to stay aligned in normal operation. By selling them in matched sets, Toyota gets them within very close tolerances to one another. But nobody makes belts that perfect and they don't need to be.

DougM
 
Gee, and I was just going to swap the belts this weekend and make them tight like I do on the FJ40.

Aw heck - I think I'll still do it that way!
 
I realize this thread is 10 years old, but had a question about belt tension. The FSM for the 80 series recommends around 125 ftlb of tension on new belts. For the double v-belts around the alternator, idler pulley, etc., do I divide that in half? That is, should each belt be about 62.5 ftlb or should each be 125? Thanks for any help with this!
 
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