Anthonymv

I had my Vortech SC installed this summer. I was shown how to tell if my belt was getting lose until I had my boost gage installed. I noticed it was getting loose and the car did feel a little slower. After a few weeks I tried to find a place that had the right tool that measures in lbs per deflection. I finally found one, set up a quick appointment to get it tightened back to 20. Two nights before, I popped my hood and saw all kinds of fibers everywhere. It was pieces of the hood liner. There was a huge hole in the liner of the hood. The belt was no where to be found. The belt obviously got looser and looser and either fell off or snapped and flew off ripping a hole in the liner. I didn't notice or hear it coming off because I had been on empty for many miles and my brake pads were very worn so I was taking it easy and driving under 3k for the whole day (didn't drive up to any rpm where I would usually have boost). Anyway, how hard will it be to put a new belt on? I have been told that I need to have the SC bracket uninstalled, belt put on, and reinstalled. Can I do this myself with friends who are good with working with cars or should I take it somwhere. Any experience on how to install a new belt would be greatly appreciated. In the future, I have read and assume that it is not hard to tighten the belt myself if I have the right tools. Thanks for your help and time.

-Anthony

fltsfshr

While you're there take inspect your other belt as well in case it nicked that one when it was flailing around. Usually vortech belts don't need much tightening, they stay pretty well. I think you should take it to a vortech dealer or a good fi person and have them look at everything including your pulleys.

that's my opinion, good luck

...just because I'm curious, look underneath and see if you still have the idler pulley or if that left too. It's the one down on the lower left side as you face the car. it's just a bolt thru the bracket with a pulley on the inside.

fltsfshr

xviper

Anthony, you can do this yourself if you have some of the right tools to make the job much easier. Rachetting box end wrenches are really handy for this, as is a 90 degree rachet for the belt tensioner. You have to loosen all mounting bolts enough so that the whole assembly can be pulled away from the lowest 2 mounting rods to make a gap. This is necessary so that you can slip the belt through where it can be threaded onto all the pulleys. Start by unbolting the S/C from the various brackets while leaving the brackets themselves still attached to the engine. You'll have the two at the VTEC solenoid sandwich, the two that are attached to the bracket that's bolted to the head, the engine's idler pulley and then those 2 nuts down low that hold the S/C to those rods that go through that black rectangular mounting block. It is between the block and the S/C bracket that the belt must pass.
Before you can thread the belt onto all the pulleys, you need to release the jam locknut on the tensioner pulley and then move that pulley by undoing the tensioner rod.
If all of this proves too daunting, then take it to whoever installed it in the first place.

Anthonymv

xviper, as always, thank you for your help. That was exactly what I was looking for. I know it is relatively normal for SC belts to get loose after 500 miles or so, but I didn't realize it would get looser and looser in such a short period of time and then fall or snap off. Is this common?

xviper

[QUOTE=Anthonymv,Aug 23 2004, 05:13 PM] xviper, as always, thank you for your help.