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belt tensioner-pulley only

March 28, 2012, 08:20:27 pm

One of my tensioners has a slight radius worn into the pulley as I was wondering why the belt had jumped one groove while we were away. The spring is fine so I was wondering if anyone has bought one (pulley only) and if so what is the #. Checked Barry Beam sites and no luck there. I seem to remember a thread a while ago about them. I have the Cummins 8.2 ISL 2000 U295
John H

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Re: belt tensioner-pulley only

Reply #1 – March 28, 2012, 10:53:11 pm

Is this the original tensioner?  If so, I strongly recommend replacement.  The belt may have jumped as the arm no longer rotates the pulley squarely into the belt.  The original cummins tensioner does not have a lot of spring damping and its design is very prone to the arm separating from the cup. 

As a last point, at Gates we offer pulleys but do not recommend pulley replacement on a tensioner  For manufacturing ease, the bolt that holds the pulley to the arm is a self tapper and the threads get damaged as the bolt is removed.

Mike

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Reply #2 – March 28, 2012, 11:22:11 pm

John,

I bought 2 Gates tensioners from Amazon.  Their price at the time was lower than anyone else selling on the internet.  The con was that it took several weeks before they arrived.  Later I saw that the price went up and then it went back down.  Just google Gates and the part number and see what you get. 

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Reply #3 – March 29, 2012, 12:58:44 am

I think it is the original but the pulley face is the culprit as it has a definite  "dish" to it, and in fact it has caused the belt to jump a groove and take out one of the edge ribs. I take your point Mike and maybe it is time to replace it all. Living in Canada we do not get the deals that the larger market in the US gets and no free shipping from Amazon due to border and our customs/tax situation. I will see what I can find out in the morning at the dealers etc
John

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Reply #4 – March 29, 2012, 07:30:37 am

John, you would have an ISC not an ISL in a 2000 U295

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Reply #5 – March 29, 2012, 09:41:05 am

John,

I bought a replacement tensioner from FOT. I ordered it by telephone and it was shipped quickly. It is a Cummins tensioner. Some knowledgeable people recommend other brands, and you may find better pricing by searching. I have been satisfied with the results of buying parts from FOT.

I bought the tensioner because of squealing noises that sounded like a bearing going bad. It turned out that another well know service facility had put on a belt that was a bit too long. It was slipping and making the squealing noises. FOT solved the problem by installing the correct belt. The original tensioner is OK, so I now care a spare tensioner for the hydraulic pump belt, and well as a spare belt.

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Re: belt tensioner-pulley only

Reply #6 – March 29, 2012, 10:22:38 am

John,

You did not say if you have a V belt or a flat grooved belt. Did your V belt jump over to an unused groove or did the flat belt move over to the next groove on the pulley? Yes, this is a sign of a belt tensioner out of alignment. If you have the correct serpentine belt, it should go from side to side and cover the surface of both the crank and hydraulic pump pulley otherwise, you may have the wrong belt width installed like the incorrect one mine came with. An bad tensioner will cause the edge to start fraying against the side of the pulley and eventually the belt will fail. A one minute job to check angles with an angle gauge. Like the Gates guy said, I would replace the entire tensioner as they are less than $100 for the HD model even if you can't get it from Amazon. (and check angles after installation of the new one)

A bunch of different tensioners out there from Dayco, Goodyear, etc. but I like the HD Gates along with their Heavy Duty Green Stripe Fleet belts. They cost $5 to $10 over the regular Gates but get great reviews. I bought 3 but still have the first Green Stripe on and it shows no wear. Half the price of NAPA if you do a little research and mail order.

Pierce

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Reply #7 – March 29, 2012, 12:43:40 pm

Dave, correct I pressed the wrong buttons -  ISC.
I have the serpentine 8 groove belt and it is the right one and the edge has been worn off. I checked the alignment across faces and it is fine, that is when I took a look at the face of the tensioner and put a straight edge across it and saw the wear as something had to have caused the belt to wander.
I will go to town today and see what I can come up with then check online after.
thanks all
John

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Reply #8 – March 29, 2012, 01:32:49 pm

John,
Check out Pierce's advice to me when I had my belt tensioners fail.  I replaced both:

C8.3 Cummins 325 Belt Tensioners

BTW:  I just received the ballasts this morning.  Again, many thanks.

Peter

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Reply #9 – March 29, 2012, 07:27:01 pm

Peter that was quick posal service, I wish ours was that good and low cost. It was funny actually as I had to drive over the border to the next town to send all the packages and the customs guy for US figured I was doing some commercial business as he asked me who I was sending all the bits too and how much was I charging for them. When I told him they were free he looked at me and said "why free" so I said "cause Im a nice guy" so he told me to go but next time I will have to fill out a commercial document and be charged !!!
Anyway back to the Tensioner. I whent to our Napa store and they said "yep, we can have it for you in the morning, that is $170.00 plus tax" so I said forget it and came home and ordered it from Amazon to be delivered to my box in that town just over the border again. I will have to figure a story to tell the Canadian customs why I drove down for 5 mins. Life is so difficult sometimes.
John

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Reply #10 – March 29, 2012, 09:41:31 pm

Outer two groves on my ISM belt that drives the AC compressor came apart in canada last year. It was an 8 ribbed belt which matches the engine drive pulley however the AC compressor was 5 or 6 don't remember specific. This caused two of the ribs to ride outside the groves on the alternator. This caused the belt to fail. Check all the pully's to make sure they have the same number of grooves. I didn't notice the difference until I already bought a new 8 ribbed belt from Cummins. Previous owner had installed the wrong belt.

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