zetec alternator / water pump belt tension

[Das]

My Caterham project is a last on the road , took it for its MOT today passed 1st time , with nice remarks from MOT station whom said I had made a good job !!!.

 

I then went for my first balt , no problems until nearly home when decided to give

it full chat , nasty noise followed by inginition light comming on.

 

Alternator / water pump belt destroyed , this may be the pulleys not aligned very well , I have now moved them very slightly ( approx 1mm ).

 

I am wondering if the belt was too tight or lose , how should it be set ?

[Paul Formston]

Hi Das I have a Zetec in my Caterham and the first couple of months on the road I had a bit of trouble with the alternater belt, (see May 06 Low Flying ) it was neally a disaster in Germany ☹️ Because I use a Tiger alternator braket 😳 and it wasn't aligned very well, so it was noisey and the vibration loosened one of the bolts and it fell out, so all the strain was on the top mount bolt and the alternator top braket snapped, so make sure the alignment is Ok and tighten so there is just a little play and you sould be fine mine has been OK since 😬 Regards Paul

[MikeK]

I had a lot of problems with this too.

Could never get the belt to stay on with my home made bracket, no matter how carefully I shimmed it to get the alignment right.

Ended up buying a Dunnel alternator mounting kit, which fixed the problem (at a price).

MikeK

[Das]

I have realigned the alternator bracket , I think its a retro ford bit I have modified very heavily , I have set the belt quite tight , hopefully it will be ok this time , if not I will re-align using some very fancy measuring kit I have at work.

 

If that fails I will buy the raceline bits , every thing else I have is raceline and excellent.