Serpentine belt replacement

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bigjl2
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Serpentine belt replacement

Post by bigjl2 »

As mentioned on another thread my serpentine belt gave up the ghost, got a new one from gfs, my car has a manual tensioner, eventually figured out that to get it too loosen off I had to loosen the bolt in the middle of the wheel, belt went on ok, but when tightening everything up, and turning the engine over the belt keeps coming out of alignment on the cranshaft pulley by two groves, have I missed something, do you need to almost fully tighten the wheel before fully adjusting the tension, or have I put too much or too little tension on the belt, no funny noises, u can't see why it is doing this unless I have a alignment problem on te tensioner, BoL does't show my setup it is a 1.9TD with A/C and a manual tensioner and a 1388mm belt, the A/C was a dealer fit daivia aftermarket system, all hints gratefully received.
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Post by CitroJim »

Something has to be seriously out of alignment to cause it to jump two grooves on just turning it over.

With the belt off, it should be possible to "sight" the various pulleys and see which it is. Look at the HP pump pully and move your eyes to being all others in line with it if you see what I mean.

On a standard set-up there is no lateral adjustment possible on any component the belt drives. This I would think would be the case also with the after-market aircon.

Does, when turning over the engine, the belt ride off the crank pulley first? If so, the crank pulley has to be the first suspect. It is the only pulley that is not solid and has an inner and outer annulus bonded together with rubber. This rubber breaks up and unbonds after a time and can allow the outer annulus to move out of alignment. Look carefully at the crank pulley, paying attention to the rubber and the relative alignment of the inner and outer annuli. You may find the pulley is starting to break up and the inner and outer are no longer in alignment. Whilst looking at the crank pulley, it is worth checking the crank pulley centre bolt is tight and that there is no lateral play on the pulley itself.

If not that, check for lateral play on your aircon pulley/clutch assembly.

Check the tensioner jockey wheel bearings are good. A sign a tensioner is on the way out is they sit at an angle to the belt when the belt is brought under tension. This affects mainly the spring-loaded top tensioner.

Otherwise check for lateral play in everything else the belt drives.

A very rare cause may be excessive crankshaft end-float but this is very unlikely.
Jim

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bigjl2
Posts: 73
Joined: 12 Jul 2007, 15:53
Location: essex
My Cars:
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Post by bigjl2 »

The belt is completely silent in operation, all pullies line up, it may well have been like it for ages with the old belt, as the the tensioner is the next thing to it as the belt spins I will price up a tensioner, this may be a bit out, or I may have loosened up the tensioner wheel a bit too much before adjusting it up, will have a look at it again on monday as at work all weekend.
Xantia 2.0SX estate (now sold)
Xantia 1.9 TD SX hatch 102K (all old MOT'S) and working A/C.(Sold to forum member, time to save for a C5)
2007 Berlingo Multispace 1.4i Forte, bought in November with genuine 27k miles, now on 39799 miles.
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Post by falling-out-with-my-car »

Hi, I gave up trying to muck around with the top tensioner on my belt on my xantia 1.9TD and because it was nearly xmas I thought what the heck let the citroen garage do it, well they fitted a massive spring behind the top pulley apparently made for a 2.1 TD but just looking at the diagram gives me a headache the whole job cost me 400 quid but its not a job for the feint hearted esspecially as the belt kept jumping off when i replaced it due to knackered pulley bearings. I tried and failed and it cost me more in the end but shes back on the road and the shame I'll just have to swollow for once.

regards Nigel.
Citroen Xantia S2 1.9 TD estate 189K soon to be broken for parts Jan 2017 headlamps & radiator fan assembly already spoken for & A 1987 Citroen 2CV6 special just for fun.
New addition Citroen C5 2.0 HDi Exclusive Hatch purchased 09/12/2016 with 83K on the clock.
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