p_tothe_g

Hey All,
Just did my belts recently and wound up with the "whirr" supercharger sound. So I dumbed back the tension on the balance shaft belt until it was not so bad. word of note to the other posts I've read, I tensioned the balance belt rotating the tensioner CLOCKWISE, the reason I did this is because after tensioning CCW like all the manuals say, the balance shaft belt was kissing my water pump pulley just enough to put a 0.050" wide polished line in it, tensioning CLOCKWISE puts it a safe distance away. This is a 3.0L S2 if that matters.

I have a question about using the 9201 tension tool. This may relate to a bunch of posts regarding the belts being too tight.

When tensioning the blance shaft belt (and this applies to the timing belt too) and using the "special" tool, do you allow the roller for the indicator to fall into the "valley" between teeth to take the measurement, or do you let it ride on top of one of the belt teeth? I only ask this because you will get much different readings depending on where the indicator shaft lands on the belt. My german instructions that came with my borrowed tool do not show an answer to this, and I haven't found anything in the manuals either (nor Clark's).

If the flat bars of the tool rest on the top of the belt teeth, would the indicator arm also have to rest on the top of the teeth?

If anyone has input to this, it would be greatly appreciated. It is almost time to retension and would like to make sure I am doing it right.

Thanks
-pg

Vincent C.

the roller goes in the valley of the teeth, engine must be cold and the balance belt tension is 4...

yellowline

Nope, round roller goes in between belt teeth. Otherwise it would be pretty impossible to get the 4.0 for new belts.

A tip that most guides and walkthroughs don't stress enough: If you play around with the tool enough and take a lot of readings, you'll find that readings are affected (+/- 0.5 or so) by where you placed the tool on the span of the belt. Try to install the tool as close to the center of the long spans as possible.

Also remember that you can get an artificially high reading from twisting the belt as you install the 9201; you can never get a low reading. Therefore, always take the low reading as what you have.

p_tothe_g

thanks for the info, just needed to clarify.
I have practiced using the tool (must have done a dozen reading or so on each belt) and was measuring with the indicator bar in the "valley" between teeth. I actually ended up tensioning the balance belt "by hand" for now, because of the mine made after start up (pretty loud) and because of all the posts that I read about the whine that they make when too tight.

Another trick using the tool that I found makes a big difference (aside from using the calibration bar and making certain that it is going to be an accurate measurement) is when pushing the sliding bar into place, do it very slowly and stop as soon as you hear/feel it click with the detent, because it will let you overtravel and potentially give a false reading.

Thanks for the clarification guys.
happy motoring, or in my case, happy wrenching
-pg

p_tothe_g

thanks for the info, just needed to clarify.
I have practiced using the tool (must have done a dozen reading or so on each belt) and was measuring with the indicator bar in the "valley" between teeth. I actually ended up tensioning the balance belt "by hand" for now, because of the mine made after start up (pretty loud) and because of all the posts that I read about the whine that they make when too tight.

Another trick using the tool that I found makes a big difference (aside from using the calibration bar and making certain that it is going to be an accurate measurement) is when pushing the sliding bar into place, do it very slowly and stop as soon as you hear/feel it click with the detent, because it will let you overtravel and potentially give a false reading.

Thanks for the clarification guys.
happy motoring, or in my case, happy wrenching
-pg

JayRogers

Sorry I don't mean to hijack. However I was having the same problem on my car before I just flat out blew the engine. I had the belts replaced and it sounded like a damn supercharger, I was so aggravated at people stopping next to me at red lights telling me I had a problem that I just started telling them I had an S/C under there.

Should I have brought it back to the shop and told them to fix it or is it more trouble than it's worth?

Thanks

StoogeMoe

Uh, the balance belt tension is supposed to be either 2.7 or 3.5, depending on what style belt you have, not 4. That would explain the excessive whining. However, it is normal for a new belt to whine. This will go away in approximately 500 miles.

moorepower

If the belt tension is right, the whining could also be coming from the balance belt idler roller. If it's touching the belt, it will give the same supercharger/turbine sound.

joonas

Balance shaft teeth are round like U or sharper at the end?
What type balance shaft belt you have?

I think that was Vertex that sent me Flennor balace shaft belt (belt kit) and it had teeth more like triangle. That belt made a lot of noise eaven when loosened.

p_tothe_g

I got the Continental full kit from pelican. Replaced all rollers and followed all steps to a "T" except for the direction to tension the balance belt (which I went clockwise when viewing the motor from the front, reason is in my initial post).

I had put over 800 miles on it before I got a little worried that it wouldn't go away with "break-in" time. So I let off the tension a bit and it has quieted down a bunch. I have almost 2k on the set now and will do a retension shortly and double check that I have crossed all my "t's" and dotted all my "i's".

I know they will make some noise regardless, as my old and very loosely tensioned set that I removed still made the noise, it was just a bit excessive, so wanted to confirm that I was indeed using the tensioning guage correctly.

Thanks, for the input.

yellowline

Balance tension is 3.5 +/- 0.5, so 4 is OK.

New timing tension is 4.