Another Serp. Belt Issue

[93Rubie]

I replaced the serp. belt on the car when I got it, and it later shredded that belt so....I had replaced my tensionor and idler, which corrected the belt from walking back. Well yesterday under enthusiastic use, it threw the belt with no warning, I have not had it walk at all since the tensioner and idler where replaced. I've shredded two $55 belts because of a typical GM piss poor design. That they fixed in later 93. Mine is a early 93.

What they never drove them like they should apparently??? Maybe Redline UP shifts are too hard on it, and then decelerating in gear. Is it a sports car or a Cavalier???

Long story short I have the TSB 93-273-6A that calls for replacing this flaw with the updated L93-96 style system. This is all fine and dandy as I can easily get the belt, and idlers. They call for a new Generator, but I call BS. I need a new Alternator (noise) but that is not the issue. The issue is that GM discontinued the L93-96 power steering pump pulley, I checked high and low today, NO GM dealer in the country has one. Corvette parts houses=none. I am awaiting word back from some salvage yards but that will not be till monday.

If I can get the stuff, I will fix this once and for all.

So what I am asking is DO i really need the different Alternator??? Or do i just need the belt, idlers, and if I can FIND ONE the PS pump pulley? Anyone have a L93-96 PS pump pulley for sale???

 

[93Rubie]

Apparently, I'm the only 92-Early 93 Owner that actually drives their Corvette, they way Zora/Dave M. intended them to be driven. :eyerole

 

[Dad]

Apparently, I'm the only 92-Early 93 Owner that actually drives their Corvette, they way Zora/Dave M. intended them to be driven. :eyerole

That may not be quite true, I think my '92 had its share of redline driving durning its 7 years and 92K miles. It never threw a belt though and I did change it at 80K because it started to squeak just a bit. Never did do well at autocross with the old Flexible Flyer.

Maybe someone has been messing with your engine and has put something together wrong?

 

[93Rubie]

IDK, but I'm going to check it over thoroughly here very soon, something has to be loose or more likely misaligned or something??? Nothing obvious that is for sure. It must be something small as this only happens seems once a year and I run it hard more than once a year.

 

[Dad]

Take your breaker bar and take the tension off your tension pulley and check for slop in the pivot of the pulley arm, not the pulley bearing. Found one on my granddaughters 2009 Pontiac that had a 1/4 of slop, haven't changed it yet and hope the new belt holds until the new tensioner gets here.

 

[93Rubie]

Tensioner checks out it is new last year, but did re-recheck ok. ALso so did idler. I checked the crank pulley as well. Checked alignment with a straight edge as well, seems ok. I did notice my alternator with no belt when you spin it makes some noise. Poked around with it and noticed the pulley WOBBLES!!!, just enough to be not obvious but once you see it, its pretty bad. I got a new one coming. The whole pulley and fan wobble. I'm guessing the bearings are shot or going bad. Never heard a peep out of it before or had any issues.

 

[93Rubie]

Update, I did replace my alternator and belt, saw some improvements, however, I noticed the wear pattern the belt more this time than ever before because it was NOT a GM belt but a Gates one. Not quite as dark in color. It was only wearing on the back most rib and on the lip of the rib you could see it was narrower than the rest after I ran it for about 200 miles. Not good so I decided to convert to a single sided belt. I got a smooth power steering pump pulley and two smooth idlers, and a new belt. I placed them onto the car today. However, in process of removing the old plastic pulley with a generic puller I noticed after removing the black cap that the pulley seemed kind of far on the pump. I looked up the section in the FSM relating to this. Says it should be within .3" of the end of the pump shaft. Well mine was on the extreme end of that tolerance. I am willing to bet this was causing a slight misalignment and at high RPM's over time was killing the belt. SOB!?!

The change over was easy other than the new belt being a huge PITA to get on. I had to make a different tool to get more out of the pensioner and had to pry the belt on a little (I know, I know, that is a no-no but they my car and you got to do what it takes to get it done, believe me I did not want to do that either but no option.) So I got it on and the belt pensioner was between the max. and min. marks. Started it up and it runs just back a little from the max. belt length. Go figure had a time getting it on and is not at min belt length. FIGURES!! Much better than the double sided one, however. Runs straighter too, will road test report back, but I think this will be the last one I change for quite a while.

People will be confused seeing a early Alternator on a early build car with a later serp. belt setup. They changed it for a reason=more reliable. I'll put it to the test, drag racing Friday night, and auto-x Saturday morning is the plan.

 

[2VettesMike]

Just found your thread today. I too agree that either the PS pulley was out of align and/or alternator bearing was letting the shaft walk around.

This is probably a little late to help however I too have the early style ribbed on both sides belt setup. 174K miles, replace the belt ever 3-4 years when it shows cracking. No problems, lots of drag racing high rpm shifts.

I think the problem with the dual ribbed belt was earlier end of life due to cracking.

Take care, good luck on the update.

Mike

 

[boomdriver]

Wish I had seen this earlier....

I had similar issues last yr. Went thru 3 belts in 1 month. At $55 each, I was getting annoyed pretty fast.

The detective work led me to the tensioner. The edge of the belt showed it tracking against the back edge of the a/c pulley where the raised edge chewed the belt. The belt was centered on every other pulley. I bought a new tensioner pulley since that was the last place that guided the belt before the a/c.
Chewed that new belt up in a week. The new pulley was smooth with no rear edge where the original was raised edge both sides. The belt was trying to track right on the read edge,. to the point of about 1mm hanging off the edge-less pulley on the tensioner.

I forget what exactly got me looking at the tensioner, but I ended up measuring the mount against the pulley lever and discovered that the tensioner was separating internally and was moving its pulley off-track and taking the belt with it. Installed a new tensioner with the new style pulley and the belt has been tracking right ever since.

Appearently the tensioner has a plastic guide sleeve inside that has something to do with the spring. It acts like a bushing and allows the travel of the lever under tension. This can be seen in the tensioner joint. This will start to come apart and the slightest gap can be noticed around that plastic/nylon bushing. This is the beginning of the end. The lever moves off center and guides the belt so the belt edge chews on the edge of the next pulley and eventually throws itself or chews itself to pieces.

I think I had 2 get thrown with moderate damage (severed under hood lites, damaged to air intake coupler, etc) and the 3rd came apart in strips as the ribs all separated and wrapped themselves around everything that they circled....

 

[93Rubie]

Last year I put on a new belt and tensioner because it shredded itself, after continually walking back. I never had a problem with it until about a month ago and it suddenly let loose. Then I discovered the alternator issue. Replaced that and ran a new double sided belt with the other idler replaced for extra insurance. Did fine, however, I decided to do a full conversion to the later style system.

I ran it for about 60 miles today and stopped periodically to check on it. Everything looked great, tracking on center with all pulleys and no odd sounds of anything else. I even beat on it some and it never moved or shows any signs of anything a miss. Well see how it does this weekend. Redline for a good time and lots of it!!!

Boomdriver, speaking of underhood mayham, I got a wire holder taken out by the belt. A chunk of wire loom (the one that runs the drivers side by the A/C Compressor), and the first time it happened the belt hit the bottom of the hood so hard it actually spider cracked the paint about the size of a nickel or so on the surface. Yeah, I was mad. Filled it in with Dr. Colorchip best I could. Not too noticeable. At least no one can claim I drive my Corvette like a Buick.

 

[boomdriver]

Last year I put on a new belt and tensioner because it shredded itself, after continually walking back. I never had a problem with it until about a month ago and it suddenly let loose. Then I discovered the alternator issue. Replaced that and ran a new double sided belt with the other idler replaced for extra insurance. Did fine, however, I decided to do a full conversion to the later style system.

I ran it for about 60 miles today and stopped periodically to check on it. Everything looked great, tracking on center with all pulleys and no odd sounds of anything else. I even beat on it some and it never moved or shows any signs of anything a miss. Well see how it does this weekend. Redline for a good time and lots of it!!!

Boomdriver, speaking of underhood mayham, I got a wire holder taken out by the belt. A chunk of wire loom (the one that runs the drivers side by the A/C Compressor), and the first time it happened the belt hit the bottom of the hood so hard it actually spider cracked the paint about the size of a nickel or so on the surface. Yeah, I was mad. Filled it in with Dr. Colorchip best I could. Not too noticeable. At least no one can claim I drive my Corvette like a Buick.

S*** I guess so !

I forgot to add that when the one came apart in strips and wrapped itself around everything, it took out the a/c compressor clutch contact pins...

I had to dremmel into the plastic to find the end of the coil wire and solder a new pin onto that. Made it work for quite a while. I was too PO'd to go thru the hassle of draining the system and swapping clutches OR the whole darn compressor over that stinkin belt...I was just looking at the hood lite wire and thinking of replacing the whole assy so it would look nice again...