p/s belt problem...

[chase172]

hey guys. i'm not a new member my other account got deleted probably due to inactivity or something i dunno but anyways...

i searched and searched and couldn't really come up with an answer on this. i've got a heavily modded 97 gs (420 hp) that just got out of the shop. i have already gone through 3 belts on the p/s-a/c side. i've got a brand new crank pulley as i just had the whole motor rebuilt, but the a/c comp. and the p/s pump are the old ones i had before.

i'm picking up a new tensioner tomorrow to try to solve this because the bearing looked REALLY dirty! but i also noticed my p/s pulley had a SMALL TEENY TINY wobble . it's hardly noticeable but when i take a timing light to my belt and it revs above 3500 i notice movement between the crank and my p/s pulley. it gets worse the faster it goes. it almost looks like the belt is getting LOOSER as it turns FASTER.

what could this be? the p/s pulley, or tensioner due to a bad bearing?

thanks for the help guys. i'm sick of buying new belts!

 

[Locke]

Any accessory or idler bearing failure can cause your vehicle to throw belts.

The bearings in the tensioner are sealed. They can look dirty and still be 100%. If they wobble or grind, then replace them.

If the PS pulley wobbles, you will be needing a new PS pump soon.

 

[link16]

I had to remove my a/c due to my oil return, and I also lost my tensioner for my P/S belt; We used two sets of hands and a crow-bar and my belt is at the perfect tension.

 

[roadrunner2176]

Also look to see that the tensioner isn't stressed. You can tweak the pulley if you don't loosen the pulley before adjusting the tension, which usually results in a broken one off reverse threaded metric mistake. The pulley is also coated, when the coating wears, the belt tends to wander, works fine under regular driving, under higher revs, it wanders off the shreds.

You can also buy a shorter belt that bypasses the ac compressor if you want to bypass it without removing it.

 

[Shadow98]

Update your profile, I'm very curious as to how you have "420 hp" and do you have a dyno sheet..?
Also, make sure you're Crank pulley is all the way in. If it's off it'll throw the p/s & a/c belt off, while the Alt belt may or may not stay on in high RPM's.

 

[crab1092]

I want to know what kind of engine management that you have to be using a timing light? But to answer your question if anything is wobbling its going to throw the belt especially at high rpm. I dont think its the tensioner if you see the wobble on the p/s pulley. That tensioner pulley is damn expensive if i remember correctly, like over 100 bucks, so i would not just buy it unless i knew that was the problem.

 

[djjohns55]

Check your power steering bracket bolts.
You may to check to see if your crank pulley is torqued down to the right amount.

My car has a piece that is broken off of the aluminum piece with the two long studs in it that bolt to the passenger side motor mount and a piece broken off of the block .I cant remember the correct term for the piece. My car was throwing belts all the time since found out that my power steering bracket is holding on for dear life with one bolt.

After all of that I found splitting my PS belt in half keeps the belt on without jumping off and Ive been driving like this for a couple of months w/o any problems.

 

[teklein]

My PS pump has a weeny weeny bit of wobble, but it was the AC pump that was throwing the belt. Been 4000 miles now, no issues from the PS pump, my Neons had the same amount of wobble, never an issue from them either.

You need a 400K5 belt to go around the engine and the PS pump, you can tension it using the three bolts on the pump.