Fitting a 2mm shorter drive belt??

[Timmo]

Afternoon chaps,
Been nosing at drive belts and got me wondering if the listing is for a 1735mm belt would a 1733mm belt fit?? Assuming the tensioner would obviously have a lot less adjustability from the shorter belt, but something as little as 2mm, would it make a Huge difference to fitting??

Thoughs and or advice gratefully received!

Timmo.

[spider]

Probably although some setups are difficult enough to fit with the correct belt, given the one you take off has invariably stretched a little bit.

Usually people want slightly longer ones to make the fitting easier

[Timmo]

Hmmmn, that's a good point! Remember fitting the cambelt on the Mi16, that was a tensioner off job!!

[citronut]

also if you over tension the aux belt it can cause the auto tensioner the clatter against the cam belt housing,

regards malcolm

[BX]

The 2mm won't make a bit of difference. Whither its 1735 or 1733 depends on the belt manufacturer. Some do 1735 some do 1733. When looking up belts there is often 5mm difference in the belts recommended for a particular application between the different belt manufacturers. In the case you mention there is about 0.125% (one eighth of one per cent) difference in the length of the belts.

[Timmo]

Was goodyear and Gates ('33 and '35) so two semi trusted companies!

[Jabo]

I had to fit a new drive belt to my car recently. The only one I could get on a saturday was 5mm shorter than it should've been but It went on no bother!

[BX]

My favourites are Gates, Conti and Dayco as they are OE suppliers. Goodyear should be good as well. Perhaps it also is an OE brand but I didn't come across it yet when doing a first time belt change. Mitsuboshi (no I didn't misspell it) often features on agricultural machinery.

[spider]

Hmmmn, that's a good point! Remember fitting the cambelt on the Mi16, that was a tensioner off job!!

I remember the very early petrol XU's that had that odd tensioner (eccentric?) arrangement. Not seen one for years and I think I only did one or two, I remember it being a bit of a pig though.