drive belt tensioners maxed out?

[TheBigJ]

Hey everyone. I've been looking at this for only about a day but I don't have a clue how this could be happening.

 

Car: 1990 legacy 5speed AWD

 

relevant history:

 

I did the TBelt. I messed up the crank torque and destroyed the keyway, woodruff key, etc.

 

I fixed that with a kit from S-wings - replacing the pulley, timing gear, and woodruff key. The pulley is fixed to the gear with 2 spring pins, the woodruff key essentially only used for alignment. I torqued it properly with a chain wrench to hold the pulley.

 

Then I drove the car for 4-5 months until today. Had no problems. A few weeks ago I started having some belt squeel at start up. I didn't do anything about it until last night when I looked under the hood. Well, I can't really tighten the belts any more.

 

The power steering belt tensioner (rotates the alternator) is about to the point where the pinch-off bolt "bushing-looking thingy" starts to interfere with the power steering bracket. If I tighten the tensioner, the pinch-off bolt starts to deflect because it has no where to go.

 

The AC belt tensioner goes the opposite way. This one I can probably tighten but there won't be many threads left sticking out the bottom when I finish.

 

I compare this to the setup on my 1991 legacy, which has about an inch or more to go on both tensioner assemblies.

 

Is it possible that I've stretched the belts? They don't show any signs of unusual wear. I compared them to the ones on the 1991 legacy and they aren't grossly out of whack (didn't remove belts from 91). It's like the crankshaft pulley shifted up or everything on top of the engine shifted down. Neither of these things seem possible.

 

I have have checked the crank pulley several times in the past and not noted any severe wobble.

 

Any other ideas? Thanks so much....

[Legacy777]

Get new belts.

 

It's possible the wrong size belts were put on.

[avk]

Also check if the replacement crank pulley is same diameter as the old one. I don't really know if it can be different but some pulleys for 2.5l look different from those for 2.2. But it still comes down to the correct belt size.

[TheBigJ]

I'm sure I've been using the right belts for the past several months. They're the same ones that have always been on the car.... which made me wonder more about the bad shimmy the crank pulley had for a while after I originally did the T-belt.

 

Although the belts didn't show wear, they had stretched enough to make them impossible to tighten. This must have happened when the crank pulley was shimmying about - I remember noting that it was shimmying up and down as well as front to back.

 

Replacing the belts did the trick.

[nipper]

It sounds like the belts are worn out. Dont by the belts from the books in the store, i did that and the belts were too big. i was not happy as i am a one car household.

If you have one car, it may be easier to get them from subaru just to get the right size the first time. Two car houshold take them with you and make sure that the new ones are a hair smaller then the old ones. Better yet if you can still see the belt numbers.

 

nipper

[TheBigJ]

One thing I left out - it seems the pinch off bolt on the alternator adjustment screw was the wrong type. Not long enough to really get into the threads on the alternator. So, as I tried to tighten the old belt, this bolt wouldn't pull up on the alternator like it's supposed to.

 

I replaced this bolt and the belt at the same time and was able to get the new belt to the right tension. I guess it's possible that the old belts were fine and it was the bolt all along.