For many years, drive belts, V-belts, multi-vee-belts, and serpentine belts have already been used to transmit power from the engine 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 used to transmit power from the crankshaft to the camshafts, plus some from the camshaft to camshaft, based on engine design.

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

Tightening or Loosening
Sometimes, maintenance or restoration will demand tightening or loosening a tensioner pulley. Replacing a drive belt or timing belt, for instance, would require you to loosen a tensioner pulley to make room for the new belt, as the brand new belt is smaller than the worn drive belt.

You’ll need to Car Pulley Belt tighten a tensioner pulley, in most cases, after the installing a fresh drive belt, or even 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 using a special tool-always use the special tool to avoid belt damage.

Tensioner pulleys generally fall into two categories: accessory-integrated (AI) and non-accessory-integrated (NAI). Think of AI tensioners as adjustable accessories, such as for example an alternator, and NAI tensioners as adjustable idler pulleys. There are three types of tensioner pulleys and several methods to loosen them.
Mechanical tensioner pulleys will be the simplest, most common, and least susceptible to failure. There is usually one caveat, nevertheless, as mechanical tensioner pulleys require manual adjustment. This makes them susceptible to user error, resulting in insufficient or excessive belt tension. Additionally, they have to be adjusted to compensate for belt stretch as time passes.