Engine Bad belt tensioner, tapping noise

[AnthonyA1234]

Just changed my harmonic balancer and now that I got it all back together and running again I get a tapping noise from the engine. My buddy that was helping me lifted it up pretty far when we were putting the belt on so I suspected it didn’t go down all the way. I put a breaker bar on it and sure enough I was able to push it down a good amount and the tapping went away and all was good. I thought that was the end of it but when I drove it around the block now as I was driving it started tapping again and when I got home I lowered the tensioner again and the noise went away. I just want to clarify with you guys that that makes sense and a bad tensioner would cause that clicking noise. Also which of the ones on rock auto would you recommend. The Gates brand?

 

[Potomus Pete]

Cant go wrong with gates.

 

[AeroCoupe]

That’s what I replaced mine with.

 

[AnthonyA1234]

Great I went ahead and ordered it. Do you guys have a shorter belt bc of a smog delete on your car? My tensioner is pretty much almost straight down with this new belt made for a smog delete

 

[AnthonyA1234]

Yea now that I’m looking at it this belt is definitely too long. I’m gonna have to find a shorter one. This was the one on lmr made for smog delete cars so idk why it’s too big but who knows.

 

[Rdub6]

Is AC still on the car?

 

[AnthonyA1234]

Yea everything’s still on besides smog

 

[Rdub6]

Pretty sure 84.5 was the length for that, if I remember correctly.

 

[AnthonyA1234]

Yea, turns out the one I have which lmr sells is really a 85.25 when they have it advertised as a 84.5. What I’m wondering is if a 3/4 inch difference will bring that tensioner back to the correct setting. What do you guys think

 

[AnthonyA1234]

Found this pic from when I first put the smog delete belt. The tensioner was not as low as it is now. Then after I did my balancer about a week later and put it all back together it now sits straight down?? Doesn’t make any sense to me. I ordered the tensioner and the belt hopefully just the belt does it and I can return the tensioner

 

[limp]

Yea, turns out the one I have which lmr sells is really a 85.25 when they have it advertised as a 84.5. What I’m wondering is if a 3/4 inch difference will bring that tensioner back to the correct setting. What do you guys think

Big difference... I just went through this with my car... Seems as if all cars can vary some.. I took a piece of string where the belt will ride and then measured it.. First belt was too small and had to go up one inch in length
Parts store was really good to work with, said they do this all the time.....

 

[limp]

Cant go wrong with gates.

Do the Brits still own Gates?? I know they sold their ownership in Smith & Wesson a while back... Company I worked for was owned by the same Brit company, Tomkins.

 

[limp]

Yea, turns out the one I have which lmr sells is really a 85.25 when they have it advertised as a 84.5. What I’m wondering is if a 3/4 inch difference will bring that tensioner back to the correct setting. What do you guys think

Should have bought this at your local parts store.. You can exchange the part same day ..

 

[Mustang5L5]

These belts stretch, so I always pick a belt that puts the tensioner in the tight end of the range and over time it slowly moves to the other end. When it goes out of range (or it just looks bad) I replace.

Your original tensioner is probably close to maxed out. They do move a little while the engine is running so it was probably internally maxing out which was the tapping you heard. A shorter belt to move it more into the middle of the range would probably have fixed the issue.

I like Gates brand parts, but if there is nothing wrong with the OE tensioner i would rather have that on the car. Definitely don't chuck it if you replace it.

 

[Rdub6]

When I did my 130amp alternator upgrade, the pulley was a hair bigger than the original. Belt would not go back. I got one 1/2” bigger and it went right on. I thought for sure I would have needed more…… so to answer the question….. that 3/4” may make all the difference you need.

 

[AnthonyA1234]

Put the new belt on and its got the tensioner sitting perfect now. The tensioner no longer clicks however there was another tapping noise going on now. Turns out now my fan is hitting the shroud on the part where there’s a hole on the shroud going in towards the fan just above the radiator. I replaced the fan too so I’m guessing this new dorman fan is slightly different and it has some clearance issues with my sve radiator? I bent up my radiator hold downs to get it tighter and just to be safe I’m going to file that piece in the shroud down.

 

[AeroCoupe]

Check the motor mounts. They compress over time or fail and can cause the engine to sag and a symptom of that can be the fan hitting the shroud.

 

[AnthonyA1234]

Motor mounts are brand new energy suspension poly mounts

 

[AeroCoupe]

Ha ha ha!!! That is definitely not the issue then.

 

[AnthonyA1234]

Haha, pretty much everything in this car is brand new at this point besides engine internals. I’ve done all the little repairs you can do besides taking the engine out and rebuilding it. It’s just the way it goes with these cars I guess lol I put a new balancer on it and put it back together and get two new rattles. Well the belt rattle I took care of but I got the fan hitting the shroud now. Only thing I can think of is that the new dorman fan is slightly different and that’s the issue. I was gonna pull the shroud now when I paint the car anyway to paint it black so when it’s off I’ll file down that hump on the shroud the fan was hitting.