Cam Belt Adjustment Spring On Roller

[abr33]

Hopefully this has'nt been answered, but I am about to finish all my refit of my s1 rb25 and I need to confirm about the timing belt tensioner, the spring is meant to adjust the belt correct?, so i did this and it doesnt hardly even move the belts slack... Am i meant to wind up the spring before fitting it over the stud it sits on? I set my belt with an allen key, but im worried about tension. I set it last time too tight and it was making a whirring sound, I want some reassurance/help with this because i have a near 20k motor that I dont want to **** up. Thanks

[abr33]

Should add its a gates belt kit and it uses the factory spring.

And to be extra sure, can someone confirm how tight the belt should be exactly?

[sav man]

The Nissan manual says to put the engine on TDC and loosen the nut on the tensioner. Do 2 full laps of the crank and stop back on TDC. Then tighten the nut on the tensioner (use an allen key to hold it in place). I've done it this way on 3-4 cars now, and it works a treat

[boostn0199]

Yeah as above always done it like that no problem. The torque from memory i think is 50nm but check manual to make sure.

[jhjones]

Did you put a new spring on the tensioner after the rebuild? If you didn't they are like $10 from Nissan.

http://www.mediafire.com/?s5cmnf7llgdp2d1

Edited January 13, 2012 by H4x

[jiffo]

None of that info helps if he hasn't got the tensioner spring doing its job.

Yes you have to preload the tensioner to get the spring working, otherwise it will just sit there as you found out.

Take care you don't get any windings gaught under the tensioner where it mounts to the block, that will cock it over and run the belt off.

Next as it's a Gates belt, my opinion is that the workshop manual info won't work, the belt gets too tight once things reach operating temp.

From experience Gates belts have to be setup looser than the factory belt, which is why no more Gates belts for me.

You need to be doing belts daily to have the "feel" for Gates belts.

[Kenna802]

I did mine by relaxing the tensioner and turning the harmonic balancer a few revolutions. The tensioner will than move into the correct spot and all you have to do is keep pressure on the belt and tighten the tensioner up. Hope that helps ( I was told this by 3 different mechanics so hopefully its right as i had over tensioned mine as well the first time ) Had no problems what so ever

[abr33]

jiffo's right, I know how to rotate to set and all but my spring itself isnt right, it holds all but zero tension on the belt. Its not damaged just not coiled up....

So when it used to whir with my first build, it was obviously too tight, so can it be all but whirring? I realise what a loose belt ends up doing, but what does a slightly too tight one do?

Thanks for the input though guys

[NoFigJamHere]

Mate does it have the stud in the block that the spring rests on to put tension on the spring? If yes then your probably just not locating the straight part of the spring correctly. A belt thats too tight causes a few problems but most noticeable (what i see on engines that have been built by others that ran belt tight) is excessive wear on the 2 very front cam bearing tunnels, the one which holds the seals, its always on the inner side as the belt is trying to pull the cams towards each other. Belts also tend to go shiny when too tight. I usually run about 4 deg play. ie: wind the engine over by hand (breaker bar) until you pass a compression stroke (doesnt matter which cylinder) but you'll feel belt looses drag. rock the crank back n forward n you should have about 4 deg play...Hope that doesnt confuse you too much but its not that difficult. Just take your time ;-)