Main belt and underdrive pulleys issue

Tin-Knocker105

Registered User
I put under drive crank and water pump pulleys on and now the belt is too long. The tensioner pulley almost hits the water pump pulley.

I know if i put the UD on the alt it would give me a little more room between them, but i'm not using it because i just ordered a new wire harness and higher watt headlights. So i figured it wouldn't be smart to up the wattage of the lights while under driving the alt.

So i need someone to let me know how to figure out the length of the stock belt using the part number K080897 and maybe figure out how much shorter i would need the new belt to be.

Thanks
tony

And before someone says it

I SEARCHED AND ALL THE "short belt" threads were mostly about the SC Belt...
 
update

OK heres what i found out on the web

The gatorback part number is GTR 4080897 which means its 89 and 7/10 Th's of an inch 8 rib
I searched and couldn't find a shorter belt, so far anyway
 
even with the alt. pully installed the tensioner pully still almost hits the water pump pully. I have the ASP set and have about 1/4" to 3/8" between the tensioner and the water pump with the stock belt and have not had any problems with it. I have also not noticed bad temp rises and high voltage drops when stopped at lights like I have seen with other U/D pully sets I have used on other types of cars. I say put the alt. pully on and see what happens if you do not like the results it is not to hard to change back as long as you have the tools.
 
I only have about 1/16" clearance between the belts....been driving it that way since 2001 without any problems.

David
 
For the main drive belt, there are only 2 options, thats it. Unless you use a belt with less than 8 ribs. Thats ok, but it looks funny. Lots of guys are running large stereo's with the UD alt pulley, I think you should fine to use it as well.

A good way to test for belt clearance is use a piece of paper, with the car idling, slip the paper between the alt and W/P, if you have marks on the paper from the belts then I'd get the shorter belt.
 
Found a belt thats a wee bit shorter with 8 ribs, i had to order it so until it gets here i'll run the alt under drive pulley on the alt for now and pull it when the new belt arrives.

The new shorter belt is a Gatorback, which i like those style. To me they seam to last longer.
And its two inches shorter.


I added a couple pictures

See thats a little too close for me. the belt is traveling in opposite directions there so if something was to happen... well i don't want to screw up anything else if the belt was to cut loose Ya Know
 

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Here are some possible alternatives...

I found these part #'s on the Gates website:

#K080810 -- 8-rib 81.04" (effective length in inches)
#K080839 -- 8-rib 83.84"
#K080855 -- 8-rib 85.56"
#K080872 -- 8-rib 87.23"
#K080893 -- 8-rib 89.28" (Stock length)

All of these are 1.087" wide.

I haven't tried to find these at the parts store, but I guess they could be ordered...
 
Mine's been running that way for over a year and really shouldn't be a problem unless the belts hit.
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