Mongo

I have tons of whine after retensioning my belts this weekend. I am most certainly positive that my balance shaft belt is too tight. I am wondering if I can back the tension off without having to set the engine at TDC. Will it misalign the balance shafts? I am going to reduce the tension slightly so I can twist it a little over 90 degrees.

V2Rocket

i did it a few weeks ago without going TDC.

turning the tensioner doesnt move the shaft/crank sprockets at all, just stretches the belt a little bit.

Andy, do you have "the belt tensioning tool"?

Mongo

No I just do it by feel. I was rushing to get the balance shaft belt tensioned that I forgot to do the twist to see if I had it too tight (STUPID)

Techno Duck

Make sure the idler pulley is not touching and you have the eccentric tensioner positioned correctly. I made a rookie mistake a month or so ago when i redid my belts, i rotated the tensioner the wrong direction (though it was still tightening the belt) and it made a horribly loud whirring / whine sound.. didnt realize what the problem was until 2 days later .

V2Rocket

duck - hypothetically (ahem) if the idler was touching, would that wear out the bearing?

Mongo

It's definitely the right way and the idler isn't even contacting the belt.

Will there be any potential damage after driving this car once with a tight tension like that?

Techno Duck

If you left it like that, sure. It will basically wear everything out alot faster. As long as the belt is not ridiculously tight and you leave it like that for a day or two until you can fix it, i wouldnt worry about it

garyabc

Techno Duck,

Which way should the balance shaft tensioner be adjusted to minimize belt whine?

Should it move down towards the ground to maximize belt wrap on the passenger side balance shaft? Should it be adjusted out towards the passenger side of the car? ...out and up to minimize sharp bends? ...somewhere in between?

V2Rocket

the whine is a result of the belt being too tight.

the balance belt when properly tensioned should make you think "damn that must be loose still". it isnt. common trick is to tension to the point where you can twist the belt over 180* between your thumb and finger.

garyabc

V2, Yes, I understand that. I'm pretty sure I got the belt tension correct, both by feel and by gauge. I think I got the idler roller adjusted correctly as well. I will recheck both when I open it up again. What I don't understand is this quote:


I'm wondering if I made "the same rookie mistake", but I'm not sure which direction is correct.

garyabc

Got an email from Techno Duck. The balance belt tensioning roller should be rotated clockwise to tighten. The factory workshop manual confirms this. Rotating clockwise pushes the tensioning roller away from the balance shaft sprocket toward the passenger side of the car. Next week I will recheck everything and run the car without the belt covers. I'll post an update with whatever I find.