Help, Serpentine belt riding off upper tension pulley a bit: UPDATE

onEdge24

Registered User
Ok 1990 SC Automatic. My serpentine belt is riding lil less than 1/4 inch off the upper tension pulley and its tearing up the belt. New belt is on there sicne last one shredded. I checked the pulleys and its riding fine in the grooves as far as I can tell. My lower belt shredded at same time (not the SC belt but the other one at the bottom on the passenger side). Sorry if I am not using the correct terminology, but I'm not the most mechanically inclined person around. I just had the car in to replace a cracked oil pan and since then ive notcied this issue, no idea if it was doing this before the pan replacement.

First off, what are some causes for this to happen and how can I diagnose them. I played with all the pulleys and I cant feel and play in them, but who knows, I'm an amateur. Could this be a result of something from the shop replacing my oil pan? I know they have to do alot to get to that pan. Any and all advice appreciated greatly, thanks in advance :)

Onedge24
AKA chris
College Station, TX
 
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I just had the same thing this weekend :mad: I changed all the belts, but the big one (serpetine?), is indeed a bit off the upper tension pulley. This is only when the engine is running!

Besides that, the hose to the engine came off. I could not mount it back with that retarted squeeze spring. With tie-rips its holding now. I suspected that the loose hose, had ripped the belt. But I could not see any damaging to the hose (wich should be there, if it ripped that belt apart).

Also the belt on the alternator is to close and a lil. over the alternator pulley edge :eek:
 
brackets or pulley might have not been tightened properly or a miss alignment of the pulleys maybe. like when i took off the pulley to my super charger and when installing it back on if you dont tighten it all the way or to tight its not going to be perfectly aligned and cause the belt not to ride on the pulley properly, you know what I'm saying ?
theres a idea to think about otherwise i have no idea :D
 
i did not remove a single pulley. and the tensioner lowers itself when you release it after you placed the belt on...
 
Still Looking

Im still looking for a reason, Im going to check it against my other SC when it gets home tonight and see if I can tell a difference, and maybe change out the tensioner assembly and see if that helps...any advice suggestions still greatly appreciated.
 
Update

Well i took the tension off again and checked the puleys, the power steering one had a small amount of play in it, meaning it will slide back and forth a tiny bit. Would this be the cause of the belt riding off the tension pulley a bit? ALso if I do need to get a new pulley, wheres the best/cheapest palce to get one. Ive read the writeups on changing it out and it doesnt seem too bad, Im pretty confident I can do it easily with a rented puller from the auto parts store locally.

Thanks Again

Chris
 
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Update

Well I think i found the culprit... friggin bolt on my Passenger side accessory bracket sheared off :eek: and belt torque is pulling the bracket forward a bit...I'm going to have the shop take it off and tap the bolt and put it all back and tighten it down and should have my belts lined up again.....grrrrrrr

thanks for the responses, this forum has literally saved my thousands in repair costs helping me diagnose and/or fix a problem rather than paying the shop to snoop around.

Chris
 
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