aux belt tensioner

[cooper]

i'v had to do an alternator on my williams the other day so i changed the belt aswell but when it was all together i couldnt tension the belt.
the tensioner just doesn't seem to hold the tension, it will get to a certain level of tension an then sort of loosen off and go back on it's self.
i'v managed to get it tight enough to use by using a pry bar to push the tensioner out, whats the most likely cause of this, the tensioner it self or the bracket it sits on?
has any 1 got any pictures of the tensioner or bracket fitted to engine so i can see what i'm looking for when i strip the tensioner off tomorrow after work.
all help will be appreciated :D

[MatBrown]

Normally the teeth have sheared off the bracket.

[cooper]

Bracket?? is that the big part with the power steering pump bolted to, been looking on dialogys and from what i can see there are no teeth on the main bracket. have you got any pics of the teeth??
is there any other way i can tension the belt, like making a bracket an fixing to alternator to pull the belt tighter?

[fab]

take the tensioner off completely by removing the hex nut out. there you will see what Matt means by the teeth being broken and therefore the tensioner moving out of position. Unless of course you forgot to tighten the hex bolt in the first place cause if memory serves me correctly this does keep the tensioner from moving.

[cooper]

take the tensioner off completely by removing the hex nut out. there you will see what Matt means by the teeth being broken and therefore the tensioner moving out of position. Unless of course you forgot to tighten the hex bolt in the first place cause if memory serves me correctly this does keep the tensioner from moving.

yea thats what the plan is tomorrow when i finish work to strip tensioner completely off and see whats going on.
yea i tightend the hex bolt up
is it posiible that the tensioner is not sat on the teeth properly I.E. sat at a very slight angle, causing it to slip off the teeth??

[fab]

I doubt it mate.
At the back of the tensioner you will find teeth as such. The bracket it grips onto also has teeth. Which one needs replacing you'll discover tomorrow, but very likely the bracket. You should have no difficulty sourcing parts.

[2 live]

bracket is expensive from reno though. over £100 iirc last time i priced 1 up, which was a good few years ago now. could always elongate the hole in the little black bracket on the end of the mani to take up a bit of slack by letting the alternator move forwards from the top a bit ;)

[cooper]

I doubt it mate.
At the back of the tensioner you will find teeth as such. The bracket it grips onto also has teeth. Which one needs replacing you'll discover tomorrow, but very likely the bracket. You should have no difficulty sourcing parts.

just wat i wanted to hear any idea if its possible to change bracket in situ, or how hard its likely to be to change??
do you reckon its possible to make a bracket for the alternator to pull the belt out abit and just use the tensioner for a slight bit of tension??

[2 live]

see above ;)

[cooper]

bracket is expensive from reno though. over £100 iirc last time i priced 1 up, which was a good few years ago now. could always elongate the hole in the little black bracket on the end of the mani to take up a bit of slack by letting the alternator move forwards from the top a bit ;)

that's definatly not wat i wanted to hear.

yea i'v been thinking bout trying to adjust alternator out abit to take up abit of tension on the belt.
when i start the car from cold if i turn the wheel to full lock you can see and hear the belt jumping on the power steering pulley but once its been running for a couple of minutes it stops doing it, i checked the tension on the belt aswell and it hasn't slackened off and doesn't seem to loose either.