For decades, drive belts, V-belts, multi-vee-belts, and serpentine belts have been used to transmit power from the engine crankshaft pulley to accessories, such as the power steering pump, air-con Car Pulley Belt compressor, water pump, or cooling fans. Toothed timing belts and timing chains, too, are used to transmit power from the crankshaft to the camshafts, and some from the camshaft to camshaft, depending on engine design.
The drive belt, timing belt, or timing chain will not work well, or for very long, if at all, with incorrect tension. A loose drive belt won’t drive the accessory reliably, slipping and producing sound. Conversely, an excessively restricted belt may cause item or pulley bearing damage. Various forms of tensioner pulley maintain long-term engine and item quietness and reliability.
Tightening or Loosening
Sometimes, maintenance or repair will demand tightening or loosening a tensioner pulley. Replacing a drive belt or timing belt, for instance, would need you to loosen a tensioner pulley to create room for the brand new belt, as the new belt is smaller sized compared to the worn drive belt.
You’ll need to tighten a tensioner pulley, generally, after the installing a fresh drive belt, or to adapt for a stretched drive belt that hasn’t worn enough to warrant replacement. Stretch out belts don’t require tensioner pulleys but are “stretched” into place utilizing a special tool-always use the special tool to prevent belt damage.
Tensioner pulleys generally fall into two categories: accessory-integrated (AI) and non-accessory-integrated (NAI). Think about AI tensioners as adjustable components, such as for example an alternator, and NAI tensioners as adjustable idler pulleys. There are three types of tensioner pulleys and several ways to loosen them.
Mechanical tensioner pulleys are the simplest, many common, and least prone to failure. There is certainly one caveat, nevertheless, as mechanical tensioner pulleys need manual adjustment. This makes them prone to user error, leading to insufficient or extreme belt stress. Additionally, they need to be adjusted to compensate for belt stretch as time passes.