thanks in advance for any help here guys!

1993 850GLT...been a good car, very little maintenance. always has had a rattling noise under the hood that i didnt pay too much attention to (although it can be loud)

all powered accessories went out on a drive home recently...belt was shredded. noise stopped upon restarting! i replaced belt and tensioner pulley (only, not tensioner), but upon starting with new parts, the tensioner was vibrating pretty bad and making the same old noise (belt was jumping off the PS pump pulley) so i cut it off quickly.

before i get a new complete tensioner assembly (like $80), is there a way to test this thing to know it's bad? it seems to function fine; requires a fair amount of force to compress the internal spring, and it's physically undamaged.

sidenote: the belt i got from the parts store only fit using the "original" routing seen here:

http://volvospeed.com/Repair/850_serp.pdf

i tried for awhile to route it the other way to no avail. is it possible that the belt was supposed to be put in the "new" way? i deflected the tensioner completely and could just not seem to get that belt on...the original routing was relatively easy, but the tensioner pulley definitely pushed against it pretty good.

any thoughts before i buy the new tensioner?

 

Take it off and turn it by hand. It may be in need of replacement.

 

turn what by hand?

the tensioner pulley turns fine (has nothing to do with the tensioner itself)...the spring-loaded "arm" assembly rotates and provides resistance when sufficient force is applied to it.

not sure what you mean.

 

Check the other pulleys, including power steering, alternator, and air conditioning. If one of those has started to seize up, you could get uneven force on the belt, and hence the tensioner would be pulled back and forth.

 

What size (length) is the belt you have now; 1623 mm or 1743 mm?

The latter is the "new" replacement belt and needs to be routed per "new" instructions. If you have a 1743 mm belt and used the "old" method the belt will be too loose and likely vibrate.

Attached instructions from IPD.

Also, you squirt some grease into the pivot point of the tensioner; may get rid of that rattle, at least for awhile.

 

when i get home i will measure it (i didnt know the shorter one was 1623mm)...i cant imagine i have the longer belt, because it only fits via "old" routing (will not even go on all the pulleys with tensioner completely deflected using the new routing scheme), and is tight when the tensioner is released....but i'll check.

and i'll spin all the pulleys again...i did it once before and they all seemed fine (besides crank of course), but maybe i missed a little resistance...how much is too much?

yknow, i am not 100% sure that the tensioner is making the rattling noise. it sure seemed like it, and damn it was jerking alot...but i guess it could be another pulley or device. i'll see if there is any play in anything else.

 

every pulley spins free except the one attached to the block. it turns, but with too much friction to actually spin free. it also squeaks a little.

i guess i will change it out and see if that works, before getting the new tensioner...unless yall think that an "only somewhat tight" pulley wouldnt cause a tensioner to jerk and the belt to fly off.

 

If you look closely at the exterior of the belt there should be markings on it indicating the length.

Sounds like the belt is loose; I bet you have the long belt with the old routing. If so, yes, that would make it rattle and if you have been driving like that for a while, the belt has probably been slipping and may now be ruined.

 

pls reread first post: "all powered accessories went out on a drive home recently...belt was shredded. "

prior to that, i'd driven the car for probably 20k miles without any troubles besides the constant rattling.

i'll look at the belt today for length indications.

 

belt says 1625 on it...doesnt say mm, but i assume that's the length? so this means i was right about the only possible routing.

the block pulley had some belt shards behind it that were adding some friction. it's a bit looser now. i am going to order the new tensioner assy today...

 

Hi,
How did that new tensioner assembly work out? I am dealing with a noise that I think is coming from my tensioner pulley bearing, but not sure. Am trying to decide to buy just the pulley or the whole assembly.
Thanks

 

Buy the whole assembly, ~$80 ipd. i just changed mine, took longer than expected with the oem belt. kinda tight.