SC/Accessory Belt Slipping Off

not really but it felt like it. I hadnt really driven my car hard the past few days and i went to get on it and got pretty much nothing. it revved up but there was no supercharger whine and none of that torque ive grown so fond of. So i get to barnes and noble and open the hood and my supercharged belt came off. Any ideas why? i think i might not have put it on the crank pulley right because when i changed the pulley. tension is pretty tight , but i still wanna upgrade to a 3.5 ribbed idler as well just for security. i put the belt back on and it seemed fine on the way home. maybe my tensioner is going out?

If the pulleys are not lined up exactly, it's not unusual for the belt to jump off.

DId you or previous owner replace any parts or make any mods?

Albertj

i have a 3.4" supercharger pulley , a 3.5" tensioner pulley and a 3 inch ribbed idler that have all been put on in the past week or two.

Have you read this thread?

https://rivperformance.editboard.com/series-ii-engine-transmission-f4/intense-vs-zzp-sc-pulleys-t971.htm

May not be the problem, but just in case...

No i havent read that thread...but i have the intense pulley and run it on the inner grooves. it didnt appear to be misaligned. i think it just might not have been on the crank pulley right... it appears to have popped off from there.

That was my next suggestion. I've misaligned the belt on the crank pulley before. It can slip off, but probably will just wear unevenly over time. Usually, you can tell if the belt is misaligned by looking at it carefully from the top.

yeah its too dark out now to check on it but i'll have to look in the morning... man it felt good when i drove it with the belt back on though.

I know what you mean. Our engines lose about 75 hp without the SC belt!

yeah my brother has a n/a 02 PA and its a dog... i think hes got some issues with vacuum lines or ignition...it runs terrible right now...only 60k miles on it... i wanna look at it but he doesnt trust me... he wants to supercharge it... i think if i go gen V one day he just might get his wish.

A properly running N/A 3800 engine in the PA will make a lot more power than your SC 3800 with the SC belt off, because the N/A uses higher compression, and you have the restriction of the blower + incorrect air/fuel tuning when you run without the belt.

yeah i heard they only make like 165hp or so with no boost... it seems to take a minute or two with the belt back on for the power to come back fully after driving a few miles with it off....yeah his wasnt so bad when i drove it a few months ago...actually had a lot better kick than i thought it would...

Ok so now im driving home from school and i get on it and again get lame throttle response...get home and my belt had split in half and i have rubber all over the engine bay....guess i got a project for thursday.

Make sure to check carefully that the flying bel didn't take anything else out with it. That thing lets go with considerable force.

see it split down the center and is still wrapped around the mount.... i'll double check anyway though... i'm not sure how it went like that....

Ugh... sorry to hear that. Probably damaged from uneven wear due to being misaligned + slipping off the first time. This is a project. Do both belts together, use quality belts like Gates (NAPA), see the write-up on how-to.

the belt thats on the accesory belt is dayco...so i think it has been replaced... but i probably will go ahead and replace it as well just so i know i wont have to for a while... i should replace the pulleys on the accessory belt as well correct?

I would. They're pretty easy while you're in there, and not too much money if you check around. Jack the R did a write-up on this.

Update: the belts pretty much kicked my @$$ and i gave up... too cold , tool late in the day to remove a power steering pump... the riv goes slow for one more day.

And for goodness sake fix the alignment on those pulleys.

Albertj

I was driving today and my belt just came off for no appearant reason. All pulleys spin fine. I put the belt back on and it stayed on when I started it up but I don't want to wait for it to come off again. The only thing I can say is the tensioner is probably original so it could be bad. I sometimes hear some squeaking and stuff from the belt system and I heard it today. It was raining today too. Anyway, the tensioner feels tight but I don't know how to officially check. Should I replace the tensioner or what?

Mine did that a couple times before I replaced the tensioner on the supercharger side. Hasn't done it since.

You may also want to check the alignment of the accessory belt pulleys just in case.

turtleman wrote:

I was driving today and my belt just came off for no appearant reason. All pulleys spin fine. I put the belt back on and it stayed on when I started it up but I don't want to wait for it to come off again. The only thing I can say is the tensioner is probably original so it could be bad. I sometimes hear some squeaking and stuff from the belt system and I heard it today. It was raining today too. Anyway, the tensioner feels tight but I don't know how to officially check. Should I replace the tensioner or what?

Look very closely at the idler and tensioner pullies. As the bearings wear out they permit the pullies to go further and further out of alignment. When the belts are running right they are at the center of the pulley faces not the edges. A sure hint is if you can smack an idler pulley out of/into alignment with a relatively light tap of a rubber mallet. Some months ago I noticed my blower belt was running off the left edge of the idler pulley. I found I could smack the pulley into/out of line with the heel of my hand. I got a replacement from rockauto.com.

Another hint, as has been posted before, is to slip the belts off and turn pullies by hand, see which one(s) squeak. Wanna spare yourself a headache? Replace the squeakers.

Albertj

Another source of the problem could be the idler pulley losing tension due to bad bearings. Since you will be replacing the belt anyway, I would go ahead and replace the idler. They are relatively inexpensive.

Mine made an awkward chirp especially on mornings or if it rained. Never chucked a belt, however. The sound went right away as soon as I replaced the tensioner (upon advice from Aaron). The old one "seemed" fine but it obviously wasn't. I posted up a thread about where to get one cheapest if you want to go that route. If memory serves, I got a Gates for ~$45/shipped and it came with coolant elbow/pulley.

Yeah, the thing of it is admittedly when the pullies start chirping it can be a long time before they quit working, I'd guess many hours of operation or by teh calendar, maybe months. After having them chirp and fail I've decided its not worth it and I just replace them when they start chirping. That way I mess with them on my terms.

By the way - any of you ever rebuilt the (CS144) alternator? Mine squeals a little when cold, I just wanna know if I can work it with hand tools or if I need an arbor press (not have one) to do bearings or get the shaft out or whatever. I plan to tear down/rebuild, replacing bearings, brushes and (maybe the) diode pack. *any* advice helpful, also to AA: if people provide guidance and it is do-able then I'll take pics and do a writeup.

Thanks

Albertj