belt walking on idler pulley issue

[swflastang05]

After installing my new motor (with PS delete) I shredded a belt in about 15 miles of driving, replaced the belt and a suspect idler pulley but the problem remains where the belt is walking back and forth about .100 resulting in the back of the belt walking off the back of the pulley and ultimately shredding the belt after a few miles. I didn't have this issue before the PS delete, any suggestions? I'm stumped on this one.. Here's a video, look at the upper idler pulley on the DS:

 

[G.T]

check the smooth idler pulleys, see how close to the edge the belt gets
my money is on your tensioner being bent, pushing the belt towards the inside edge of the water pump pulley
EDIT: that smooth idler pulley in the video seems like it's on its way out too.... hard to tell

 

[swflastang05]

check the smooth idler pulleys, see how close to the edge the belt gets
my money is on your tensioner being bent, pushing the belt towards the inside edge of the water pump pulley
EDIT: that smooth idler pulley in the video seems like it's on its way out too.... hard to tell

The belt walks from the point it's about .050 b/w the edge of the pulley and about .025 past the edge, roughly. I'll check the tensioner, I happened to have another one, the one currently being used is actually newer, it came with the new timing cover I bought about 1.5 years ago. I suppose it could have gotten bent somehow while it was sitting around my garage the past 3 months. I'll inspect that and if nothing else swap them out and see how it goes. Thanks for the response. This smooth pulley is fairly new, maybe a year or two old, of course that doesn't mean it's not bad.. I actually moved that one from the PS top location to its current spot, seems to be okay from what I can tell.

 

[G.T]

i've seen my fair share of bent tensioners, bad idler bearings, and even mis-shapen water pump pulleys (happens sometimes if you run a really tight belt)

 

[swflastang05]

I just looked again, I dont think it's the tensioner, mostly since it's on the opposite side of the motor, the groved idler pulley on the DS would have the most influence on the belt location there, I wonder if that bearing is going bad or has walked inside the pulley, resulting in it being top too close to the cover. I'm going to replace that pulley and see if that takes care of it.

 

[05stroker]

Are you sure you got the PS delete seated all the way?

 

[Phil1098]

Are you sure you got the PS delete seated all the way?

This.

If you can get line of sight, you can get a laser and check the grooves for alignment. Just one of those cheap Black and Decker jobs for hanging shit straight. Put it so it is laser then known good pulley and then PS delete.

 

[swflastang05]

Are you sure you got the PS delete seated all the way?

This.

If you can get line of sight, you can get a laser and check the grooves for alignment. Just one of those cheap Black and Decker jobs for hanging shit straight. Put it so it is laser then known good pulley and then PS delete.

Well there is no PS delete technically, I just rerouted the belt without using that pulley. I think I found the smoking gun though, the bearing did in fact back out of the pulley a bit, probably not perfectly straight either resulting in the belt walking as it rotates, here's a pic.



Kind of hard to see in the pic but there's .025 gap b/w the pulley and bearing housing. I think I may just order a nice set of metco pulleys or something rather than more OEM stuff. Vatozone and Advanced only have plastic pulleys and I dont want to run those. Anyone know the part number for Metco non-under drive pulleys?

 

[Phil1098]

Isn't that last pic the back of the idler? With the gap to the bearing it would technically have more surface til it walked off since the pulley is closer to the motor. Maybe I'm looking at this wrong, but once a bearing is fully in a bore, it's not usually too far off of square.

 

[swflastang05]

Isn't that last pic the back of the idler? With the gap to the bearing it would technically have more surface til it walked off since the pulley is closer to the motor. Maybe I'm looking at this wrong, but once a bearing is fully in a bore, it's not usually too far off of square.

Yes you are correct but that's the groved idler, below the flat one where the problem is, since the groved idler is closer to the timing cover it's pulling the belt closer toward the cover also.

I found the part number for the metco pulleys #MIP-2005 but for $250 I think I'll stick to OEM, lol. After spending $250 I would have 4 billet pulleys and 4 black pulleys, no thanks.

But thanks for the replies above.

 

[Phil1098]

Can you press the bearing fully back in place and then at least throw the belt back on to see if it tracks properly? It wouldn't take but a few minutes and then you would for sure know to replace the grooved idler.

 

[swflastang05]

yes I can, maybe I'll try that, I definitely wouldn't feel comfortable running it that permanently but maybe I will test it that way, thanks for the suggestion.

 

[swflastang05]

Pressed the bearing back in place, tested, it's still doing it, ARGH!

 

[swflastang05]

Does anyone make a ps delete idler pulley and bracket, if so I'll just put that on and be done with this annoying problem.

 

[swflastang05]

Worse case I think I can shim the alternator out slightly by placing a washer behind each stud behind it, I bet that would take care of it. I would prefer to know why this is happening though, and why the belt moves around, I don't think it's supposed to do that.

 

[Phil1098]

As long as every pulley is in perfect alignment serpentine belts tend to be trouble free, some grooved pulley almost has to be either farther ahead or behind than the others. If the alternator is in line but you move it, that may end up trashing the belt or more likely throwing it. I have a buddy with a 68 Camaro all modded out and has a serpentine retro kit on it. They had one pulley too far back and his would just throw the belt.

 

[swflastang05]

As long as every pulley is in perfect alignment serpentine belts tend to be trouble free, some grooved pulley almost has to be either farther ahead or behind than the others. If the alternator is in line but you move it, that may end up trashing the belt or more likely throwing it. I have a buddy with a 68 Camaro all modded out and has a serpentine retro kit on it. They had one pulley too far back and his would just throw the belt.

I'm not going to move the alternator. I did just shred another $30 belt while troubleshooting! Damn! I have an FRPP a/c delete bracket and idler pulley and that pulley wiggles a bit when you try to jiggle it by hand, it is on the other side of the motor but... IDK. All the pulleys appear to be in the proper place, this is super annoying. I ordered a new groved pulley from Tasca, I'll install it in a few days when it gets here, I doubt that will be the cure but IDK what else to do. I will swap the tensioner too as suggested above just to be sure.

 

[swflastang05]

This is how I have it routed currently.

 

[swflastang05]

maybe I can try it like this instead

 

[05stroker]

Will the belt clear the tensioner the way it is in the last diagram?