Screaming Metal
Active Member
OK, I'm gonna give you a crash course in blower belt pulley alignment. Here goes....
As I'm looking at that pic, the belt is walking on toward the blower. All gaskets are compressible to a certain extent. If its just a little bit, as looks like this is the case, what you do is bust out the wrenches.
1st thing you want to do, loosen your belt a bit. On your front blower cover, NOT THE ENDPLATE, but on the blower cover that the snout bearings are in, barely loosen the top bolts, then tighten the lower cover bolts. Tighten your belt. Start the motor and see which way it walks. Let it run for a while. Sometimes it takes a while for things to seat, the same goes for gaskets. If that didn't make it walk toward the center of the pulley, barely loosen the rear 4 blower housing to blower intake plate bolts ever so slightly. The way I do it is, I untorque it somewhat, then adjust my torque wrench -5 to -8 lbs. Then on the front 4, I tighten them 5 to 8 lbs. Then start her up and see if she walks toward the center of the pulley. If your getting close, back off about 5 or 8 lbs. on your rear 4 intake bolts, and snug the front 4 down about 5 or 8. As long as your close, your OK....it doesn't have to be perfect, but if that belt has walked off the pulley any at all, Big Mojo Fubar is fixin to happen! Gotta correct it before you run it too much or it'll try to gave babies on you. the amount of the belt thats off the pulley start flopping and start getting frayed, and will eventually separate from the rest, then it'll start shredding, trying to grab anything thats close, at that point I back off and tell the driver to kill it.
Now, if just tightening the bolts don't get ya where you need to be, leave everything where it needs to be, loosen your idler pulley, loosen off on your front blower cover bolts. Get your rubber mallet, tap the cover at the top, place about a .015-.020 shim between the endplate and your cover, one on each side, then tighten down your cover down. Tighten your idler, start it and watch. If that was it, cut a piece of .015 shim, trim it to fit your housing, put a really light coating of sealer on both sides of shim, wait for it to cure, put it in and tighten down. Tight all all things up and tighten as needed to make your belt walk to the center of the pulley. As long as your toward the middle of the pulley and the belt isn't hanging off, your OK. BUT, in the middle is good!!!! Shoot for that!
If when you first install your blower setup, and it is walking off your pulleys, STOP!. You'll have to loosen things and shift things around. Doesn't happen very often, but it does happen sometimes.....
Over all the years I've done this, I've learned that .010 to .015 will correct belt walk about 1/2 on a 3" belt. But, thats how its done. There are also front and rear pulley plates you can put on to keep this from happening, but it'll screw up the edge of your belt if its riding hard against it.
That is a fast, dirty version of how to align. Sometimes, you have to take things back completely apart, and apply your gasket sealer thicker in the spots, so, you can tighten the bolts to have enough adjustment.
Hope this helps someone out there.....
As I'm looking at that pic, the belt is walking on toward the blower. All gaskets are compressible to a certain extent. If its just a little bit, as looks like this is the case, what you do is bust out the wrenches.
1st thing you want to do, loosen your belt a bit. On your front blower cover, NOT THE ENDPLATE, but on the blower cover that the snout bearings are in, barely loosen the top bolts, then tighten the lower cover bolts. Tighten your belt. Start the motor and see which way it walks. Let it run for a while. Sometimes it takes a while for things to seat, the same goes for gaskets. If that didn't make it walk toward the center of the pulley, barely loosen the rear 4 blower housing to blower intake plate bolts ever so slightly. The way I do it is, I untorque it somewhat, then adjust my torque wrench -5 to -8 lbs. Then on the front 4, I tighten them 5 to 8 lbs. Then start her up and see if she walks toward the center of the pulley. If your getting close, back off about 5 or 8 lbs. on your rear 4 intake bolts, and snug the front 4 down about 5 or 8. As long as your close, your OK....it doesn't have to be perfect, but if that belt has walked off the pulley any at all, Big Mojo Fubar is fixin to happen! Gotta correct it before you run it too much or it'll try to gave babies on you. the amount of the belt thats off the pulley start flopping and start getting frayed, and will eventually separate from the rest, then it'll start shredding, trying to grab anything thats close, at that point I back off and tell the driver to kill it.
Now, if just tightening the bolts don't get ya where you need to be, leave everything where it needs to be, loosen your idler pulley, loosen off on your front blower cover bolts. Get your rubber mallet, tap the cover at the top, place about a .015-.020 shim between the endplate and your cover, one on each side, then tighten down your cover down. Tighten your idler, start it and watch. If that was it, cut a piece of .015 shim, trim it to fit your housing, put a really light coating of sealer on both sides of shim, wait for it to cure, put it in and tighten down. Tight all all things up and tighten as needed to make your belt walk to the center of the pulley. As long as your toward the middle of the pulley and the belt isn't hanging off, your OK. BUT, in the middle is good!!!! Shoot for that!
If when you first install your blower setup, and it is walking off your pulleys, STOP!. You'll have to loosen things and shift things around. Doesn't happen very often, but it does happen sometimes.....
Over all the years I've done this, I've learned that .010 to .015 will correct belt walk about 1/2 on a 3" belt. But, thats how its done. There are also front and rear pulley plates you can put on to keep this from happening, but it'll screw up the edge of your belt if its riding hard against it.
That is a fast, dirty version of how to align. Sometimes, you have to take things back completely apart, and apply your gasket sealer thicker in the spots, so, you can tighten the bolts to have enough adjustment.
Hope this helps someone out there.....
