Originally Posted by
roylo
Yesss. I thought I was the only one with the problem? I wonder how this happened? The other people that said they have had the belt come off under brakes earlier, this is how it happens:
If you take a look at the front pulley under brake/belt tension, it will flex upwards where it is mounted to the cover, resulting in the belt either coming off or riding hard on the outer edge/lip of the pulley until its damaged. Im looking at my own truck and can see it happenning. The solution Im thinking of so far is some kind of metal mount for the pulley like what the rear pulley is mounted so it wont flex.
To the people that want to call names and whatever, you are only embarressing yourselves. Have you taken the time to look at your truck under belt tension and see what Im talking about?
I agree that the tensioner is not as sturdy as it should be considering the amount of stress being applied under hard braking.
Eventually the high tension on the belt is pushing upwards causing the tensioner to flex. Remember the front tensioner is mounted to PLASTIC unlike the rear tensioner. So there will be some flex!!
Here is my proof:
Like I said in my previous post, it happened after a nasty lawn dart during a race which caused the lip of the pulleys to fail. Upon closer inspection I noticed that there was wear on the inside lip of the pulleys that eventually led to the failure of the part.
Like you said, a good fix would be to make a sturdy platform for the tensioner to mount on. And I agree.
Another fix could be setting the front pulley to the lowest hole position and middle to highest position on the rear. The slack could help prevent excessive rubbing on the front pulley yet still allow the belt to be fully wrapped arount the front pulley.
Belt tension is KEY.
With that said, Ive had my SC10 4x4 the very day it came out back in May. I regularly race and bash on a daily basis. The truck isnt perfect and understand when other owners go through the same struggles and or NEW ones.