do i need custom belt for iraggi overdrive pulley?

[1meanGTA]

i've got an iraggi 240 amp amputator with the smaller overdrive pulley. measured it with my caliper and its a half inch smaller diameter than stock. says in the instructions to use a belt half the difference smaller, so i went to advance auto and asked for a belt 1/4 inch shorter than my stock belt, they tell me they only come in 1/2 inch increments.

so i get 1/2 inch shorter than stock, put it on, start the truck, smell something, smelled sort of electrical so i thought maybe it was just the new alternator, took my eyes off it for 2 seconds to check the voltage hear a loud ting and shut it off. my serpetine tensioner was pulled so tight, it was sitting at an angle, the bearing heated up enough the thing came right off. i have no idea where the bolt went.

i ran up to the junkyard and got 2 spare tensioners real quick. but what do i do about the belt? the stock one is going to be way too long right? i haven't tried it but i seriously doubt it'll work. do i have to get a custom belt made?

 

[davesexplorer]

Did you try the stock belt? I can't believe a 1/4 inch made your tensioner break off! wow.

 

[1meanGTA]

well believe it now mutha####a, we gotta get this truck back on the road!!

lol sorry watched pulp fiction yesterday...

it was a half inch shorter, the next smaller size advance auto had. going to try the stock belt now but i doubt itll work.

 

[1meanGTA]

stock belt ended up working just fine, what a waste of time....

still having the voltage drop to 12.1 when i play young jeezey trap or die if im sitting parked and push it to the limit. im still using the stock battery though, and i only ended up doing the 1/0 gauge on the alternator ground and alt to battery + before i started it and burned up those bearings.

going to do the battery ground tomorrow, if that doesnt help i'm gonna have to figure out a way to stuff my 31 series yellow top in there. if THAT doesnt help i'm gonna have to buy a second one, which i dont really want to do.

when i did the alternator ground to chassis i just stuck it between the alternator and the mounting bolt, grinded the paint off of course. thats fine isnt it? my old f-body alt had a grounding post but this one doesnt.

 

[1meanGTA]

i'm still having trouble finding the right sized belt for my smaller iraggi pulley. its exactly 1/2 inch smaller in diameter than the stock pulley. my belt is tight enough to keep the truck running with a horrible squeal, and after running for a few minutes it will walk up on the edge of the power steering pulley and the squealing stops, everything works ok, but its gonna tear that belt apart. i think the iraggi's pulley may actually stick out a bit further than stock also to make it walk up on the edge like that, but i dont think it'll be a problem if its tight.

instead of getting a custom belt made (they come in 1/2 inch increments and i need 1/4 inch shorter than stock) i was thinking i could just stick a few washers between the alternator and the mounts to raise it up a hair and remove that slack. will that work ok, or will it cause me horrible alternator whine or something?

 

[EMG7895]

Go to another parts store, autozone sucks and you can probably find something suitable somewhere else, as long as its close the tensioner should take up the slack.

 

[1meanGTA]

i know better than to go to autozone. napa and advance auto both told me that. right now im using the stock belt and its ok but a little loose, squeals bad until i walks up on the power steering pulley. next size smaller destroyed my tensioner.

 

[EMG7895]

Washers will work but you will have to mess around with the amounts to get it right. Personaly I would use washers to determine the amount of lift I needed then use that measurement to cut some spacers out of tube.

 

[expo5.0]

You have some other problem.

The tensioner can deal with quite a bit of variability in belt size.

Twice in the last year i've had to change belt lengths (when i added my second alternator, and when i added my e.d.c.) and in both cases i was able to simply use a string, guess, get it close, and let the tensioner do the rest.

additionally, the pulley being 1/2" "smaller" doesnt mean that the belt should be the same... what matters is the circumference of the pulley.

It really sounds like you should be running a stock belt

I suppose it also sounds like you need a few deep cycles- at some point even if the alt can output more amperage (on average) than you are drawing (on average) you can still get into trouble unless you have some solid storage.

 

[1meanGTA]

i am running a stock belt. i was planning on just having a second group 31 optima yellow top in the rear. you really think i need more than 2 with only 3kw?

 

[expo5.0]

need or want?

i ran two svr 80-12s when i had similar power requirements as you- worked decently well.

you'll be "ok" with one