For many years, drive belts, V-belts, multi-vee-belts, and serpentine belts have been used to transmit power from the engine Car Pulley Belt crankshaft pulley to add-ons, like the power steering pump, air-con compressor, water pump, or cooling fans. Toothed timing belts and timing chains, too, are accustomed to transmit power from the crankshaft to the camshafts, plus some from the camshaft to camshaft, depending on engine design.

The drive belt, timing belt, or timing chain will not work well, or for very long, if, with incorrect tension. A loose drive belt won’t drive the accessory reliably, slipping and making noise. Conversely, an excessively restricted belt may cause accessory or pulley bearing harm. Various kinds of tensioner pulley maintain long-term engine and item quietness and reliability.

Tightening or Loosening
Sometimes, maintenance or restoration will require tightening or loosening a tensioner pulley. Changing a drive belt or timing belt, for instance, would need you to loosen a tensioner pulley to create room for the new belt, as the new belt is smaller compared to the worn drive belt.

You’ll need to tighten a tensioner pulley, generally, after the installation of a fresh drive belt, or to adapt for a stretched drive belt that hasn’t worn enough to warrant replacement. Extend belts don’t require tensioner pulleys but are “stretched” into place utilizing a special tool-always utilize the special tool to avoid belt damage.

Tensioner pulleys generally fall into two classes: accessory-integrated (AI) and non-accessory-integrated (NAI). Think about AI tensioners as adjustable add-ons, such as for example an alternator, and NAI tensioners as adjustable idler pulleys. There are three types of tensioner pulleys and many ways to loosen them.
Mechanical tensioner pulleys are the simplest, many common, and least susceptible to failure. There is certainly one caveat, nevertheless, as mechanical tensioner pulleys need manual adjustment. This makes them susceptible to user error, resulting in insufficient or extreme belt stress. Additionally, they need to be adjusted to compensate for belt stretch as time passes.