Black Cat Seeking Attention - Accessory Drive Belt

[Guest]

Yesterday morning the weather was rather gloomy and cool so decided that it was a good opportunity to give Black Bess a thorough clean, polish and wax. Shortly after getting started the sun came out to make my efforts sweatier than expected and caused me to abandon the polish/wax treatment.

Clearly BB was miffed by the decision and decided to show her claws! When I popped the bonnet to clear out an accumulation of leaves from the scuttle and do the usual fluid checks I happened to notice something odd down below at the front of the engine. Thinking it was some detritus picked up from the road I set about fishing it out to discover a 30cm x 0.5cm (suspiciously shredded) piece of the Accessory Drive Belt and clearly replacement is in order. Fortunately the damaged section of the belt remaining in situ was visible and theres enough to keep the all the accessories running, at least for a short journey, but frankly I will not be risking that.

It's a simple enough job to do, and the longest part will be waiting for the new belt to arrive, but I thought it may be a useful reminder for others to check the belt wear indicators on the tensioner, as the manual recommends below.

Cheers, I'm off to show my appreciation and shower some TLC on BB in hope of avoiding further claw attacks.😼

 

The accessory drive belt tensioner consists of an idler pulley which is free to rotate on a bearing, located at the end of a spring-loaded pivot arm.

The pivot arm can be turned counter-clockwise (viewed from the front of the engine) for accessory drive belt removal and installation.

The accessory drive belt wear indicators are incorporated on the bottom of the accessory drive belt tensioner. When the indicators are aligned the accessory drive belt requires replacing. (See arrow in diagram for location)