Bando Preventative Maintainance Tips for Power Transmission Belts
Title: Preventive maintenance for automotive power transmission belts
Belt replacements are an important part of preventive maintenance for your vehicle.
In this movie BANDO would like to introduce the preventive maintenance tips for automotive power transmission belts. It will include the following 4 items:
1. Troubles caused by belt deterioration
2. When belt replacement is necessary
3. Belt inspection methods
4. Proper belt installation
1. Trouble caused by belt deterioration
As material compounds and constructions have changed, it may seem hard to know when to replace belts.
But belts used beyond the recommended service life, can have a negative effect on your vehicles engine components. Even minor deterioration can cause decreased fuel efficiency and unusual noise while operating the vehicle.
Prolonged use can lead to more severe troubles…
If the belt breaks or slips, the alternator does not sufficiently charge the battery. The battery indicator on your dashboard will light up, which indicates that all electronic devices in the vehicle are not being charged properly.
Ordinarily, power steering allows us to turn the steering wheel with one hand, however, if the belt fails, hydraulic pressure to the power steering pump is decreased due to a lack of precision power transmission, and steering becomes difficult.
The air conditioner stops working, and there is no temperature control.
The engine overheats, and may shut down.
It is always better to be proactive rather than reactive, therefore to prevent both minor and severe trouble caused by a belt issues, BANDO recommends you to inspect the belt periodically (Every 30K miles) and get it replaced at the appropriate time.
Now let’s see what causes these conditions and when belt replacement is necessary.
2. When belt replacement is necessary
Automotive belt ribs become worn or cracks occur due to extended use and age.
These are initial signs that the belt needs to be replaced.
As belt ribs start to wear, the belt will lose its ability to grip or drive the pulley. The transmission of power in your engine will reduce due to belt slip causing your engine to not function properly.
Look for cracks or glazed appearance.
This is indicates the belt has aged and is slipping or chirping.
3. Preventive maintenance tools
It is hard to see belt wear and whether or not a belt needs to be replaced visually.
Therefore, to judge wear on today`s belt, the BANDO Rib Ace Belt Wear Gauge was created to provide a quick and accurate way to check whether a belt needs to be replaced.
The BANDO Rib Ace Wear Gauge will test usage and wear on the rib surface of the belt. To test, apply the teeth of the gauge to the rib sections of the belt.
If the back of the belt is at the same level or lower than reference level, the belt needs to be replaced. Belt height can then be checked against the reference guide to determine if replacement is necessary.
4. Proper belt installation
The first consideration is pulley alignment.
Misalignment occurs when there are errors in pulley angle, gap or parallelism. Misalignment causes belt wear, noise, vibration, and reduces belt life.
The second consideration is proper mesh between the belt and pulley. Substantially less power is transmitted if there is an offset between the belt and pulley grooves when the belt is installed. There is a risk of shearing or cutting the belt ribs are not properly placed within the pulley flange.
Finally you need to have proper belt tension. Improper tension will not only reduce belt life, but will also cause noise issues due to slip. We recommend using the BANDO Tension Master to precisely measure belt tension. Please visit BANDO`s homepage or ask a sales representative for information on the Tension Master.
Timely belt replacement enables safe and comfortable driving, and will ensure the belt maintain peak performance. BANDO recommends performing preventative maintenance and early belt replacement to avoid vehicle troubles.
BANDO
