Belt Squeak...from hell

[ba123]

Did you get your shims in place? I was about 1/8".

its all about the aftermarket heads. That's what does it. I'm at 0.17 right now.

 

[bronco italiano]

Gotcha. My buddy has stock cast iron. Where sis you get your shims from? McMaster carr?

 

[ba123]

Gotcha. My buddy has stock cast iron. Where sis you get your shims from? McMaster carr?

Weird that you'd need a spacer then, although I guess if stock Bronco with Explorer front, that might matter.

My heads are aftermarket aluminum, so makes more sense.

My spacers are from McMaster…ive spent so much there over the past year, but they are just washers and all you need if you can find ones the right thickness. I found 1/2” washers to be ideal. Since you're using 3 spaced pretty evenly, you don't need anything more special, but you could use a 1/8 piece of aluminum steel or whatever you want and it'll be good. The bracket is aluminum.

Once I know the exact spacing I need, I'll decide what to do. Tougher for me with everything finished and also why the washers are easiest. If I were able to easily remove the bracket and have room to work and needed 1/8”, I'd def use a piece of aluminum and a little adhesive on the back of the bracket so it stays there when I assemble or do anything else. Maybe a little dielectric grease or paint for you on the head side to insule so no reaction on the aluminum?

 

[bronco italiano]

McMaster Carr.... I should have bought stock in their company!!!!!
No vaseline for the spacers. The explorer brackets have a coat of paint on them.
Total bummer your all put together. Don't even know how you can get your hands in there without getting all cut up.
I can bring by my Portuguese laser if you want to try it out. LOL

 

[ba123]

McMaster Carr.... I should have bought stock in their company!!!!!
No vaseline for the spacers. The explorer brackets have a coat of paint on them.
Total bummer your all put together. Don't even know how you can get your hands in there without getting all cut up.
I can bring by my Portuguese laser if you want to try it out. LOL

Haha, my Portuguese laaer is made of metal…i mentioned I did that but I'm going for exact now when the laser from @nvrstuk comes on Tuesday it looks like. I'm really looking forward to knowing for sure and I'll compare it to my homemade one and try to get my homemade one to match so I can rely on it and let you use if you want.

The insulating issue would be if you used an aluminum spacer against the iron heads. If you use a steel washer, all good. For getting them in there, I used a retractable magnet pointer thing and lowered them in place with the bolt ready when in the right spot. Worked great. Also used that method to take the old ones out, all one at a time or would not work.

 

[bronco italiano]

I heard you talk about the magnet and it saved me last night!!!
Thanks for that insight!!

 

[ba123]

Was able to check the pulley alignment with @nvrstuk ’s laser tool today and saw that I was still too far out, about the amount of my smaller spacer washer. I pulled the 3 smaller ones out and reinstalled with the single large and it is spot on perfect!

I could only run it for a few minutes but I heard nothing from the belt. If I hear anything else from here on, it would only be because my belt got stretched.

Thanks!!!

To recap, I know I went WAY out because my belt was coming off on the PS and unwanted it to stop. I spaced It out 0.215. I knew it was too much but being tmso far away I thought it would be fine and it did stay on no problem…but eventually started making noise.

Then I spaced to 0.178, it was good but incoild still hear a slight chirp. I continues to use the same belt as I wanted to make sure it was fixed before another band-aid.

Last and final spacing needed was only 0.107, which over that far of a span is nothing and I'm shocked my belt was coming off!

 

[nvrstuk]

So you can buzz to 6500rpm & no worries & no squeeeeal ??!!

 

[ba123]

Engine not quite broken in yet, but I did take it for a little spin and so nice to just hear normal engine noises. I'll wait to see if it wants to rev that high t some point but that cam prob won't want any of that. Maybe 6k...maybe a little under, we'll see.

 

[nvrstuk]

Weird that you'd need a spacer then, although I guess if stock Bronco with Explorer front, that might matter.

My heads are aftermarket aluminum, so makes more sense.

My spacers are from McMaster…ive spent so much there over the past year, but they are just washers and all you need if you can find ones the right thickness. I found 1/2” washers to be ideal. Since you're using 3 spaced pretty evenly, you don't need anything more special, but you could use a 1/8 piece of aluminum steel or whatever you want and it'll be good. The bracket is aluminum.

Once I know the exact spacing I need, I'll decide what to do. Tougher for me with everything finished and also why the washers are easiest. If I were able to easily remove the bracket and have room to work and needed 1/8”, I'd def use a piece of aluminum and a little adhesive on the back of the bracket so it stays there when I assemble or do anything else. Maybe a little dielectric grease or paint for you on the head side to insule so no reaction on the aluminum?

I have ground sooooo many washers down on my 12" disc and then mic'd them to get them all the same! PRE-HISTORIC methods but the work for a guy w/o a shop sitting next to my shop with all the cool tools I need.

I did stumble into about 400 shims of different dia and thicknesses last year. Would have been handy to have access to those the past 40 yrs! McMaster is amazing as I started ordering from them about 20 yrs ago (maybe more) but their shipping (like everybody's) is going crazy!

This is why it takes me so long to make accessory brackets.