Cummins 480ce Belt Shred, Bad Tensioner??

[Mike Gilbert]

I am currently on the Great Loop and made a the 175 mile trip across the Gulf Of Mexico. When I looked into the bilge for my daily check I was surprised to see my starboard serpentine belt was shredding, it didn’t break (thank goodness) it looks like about 3 or for ribs were shredding. Effectively the belt was narrower. I replaced the belt with a spare, but I am sure there is more to this. The alignment looks good, no noise from any pulleys. I also check the alignment while the engine was running it looked good too, there was a fair amount of “slack” in the belt while it was running though, a bad tensioner??

I am very lucky it didn’t break as I may have had a catastrophic failure, which brings me to my next question, is there a flow sensor for the coolant flow available for this potential failure.

Topic

[Tony Athens]

Good call, but also replace the fixed idler–You need to start FRESH with those “original parts” that are now as old as my grandson but have lived in a much worse environment.. ..

While you are at it, take a tooth brush and a can of spray brake cleaner ( Autozone or ?) and clean all the grooves thoroughly in the main crankshaft serpentine pulley. It takes about 15-30 minutes to do it right..

Start FRESH……….

Tony

[Mike Gilbert]

One other thing I will mention…after checking all the pullys and alternator pulleys I have a slight bit of end play in the alternator shaft, I am assuming this is normal bearing end play. I am still going to replace tensioner.

[Mike Gilbert]

Tony, The belt is 3 years old, 600 engine hours, total hours on motors 1300. Yes all pulleys are running free. I did notice that when idling the belt “slaps” at the crank pulley. Slaps mean it goes slack and tight or vibrates. I have a video of it. I can attach if possible. or send it directly to your email?

[Tony Athens]

A few questions:

Total age of belt in years?

Total engine hours on the the belt that failed?

Total engine hours?

Same questions for the tensioner and idler…………

Tony

[Rob Schepis]

Would be a good idea to replace the tensioner. When you had the belt off did you feel and spin all of the spinning things up front to be sure all seemed as it should?

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