I put a new clutch in a few months ago. i'v gone through two gates belts, looks like the clutch pully is a hair to far out. I engaged the clutch and tightened the center screw to try to cinch it back on. Is there anything else I can do to make sure the pulley is fully tightened down to the shaft?
clutch pulley alignment
- Thread starter scotty747
- Start date
hogjowl
Idiot™
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- Oct 7, 2006
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I think I paid around $150 for a laser alignment tool on Amazon. It helped me solve my ongoing PTO alignment issues.
When i built frankinstien i got a gates laser alignment tool. Of all i looked at it was the best ( i did the video below when i was installing my driveshaft and was having a problem aligning it. In that situation the shaft was too far to left)
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Ive been thinking about your problem. A couple of questions. First, did you move anything other than the single center bolt on the clutch? Second, did you replace the clutch with same manufacturer, make,model #? If not there can be slight differences between between manufacturers and or models both of the above could require re alignment. If all the above a are the same . Check your woodruff key and or keyhole for burrs and or debris that could cause the clutch to not completely bottom out on the taper of the shaft. Maybe try temporarily installing the clutch without the woodruff key and see if it pushes farther down on the shaft. If it does the problem is with the key
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When you get it off, lay it side by side with the old one and see if there's any small differences. You probably don't have any inside micrometers. But if you lay them both on a flat surface with the magnet side up, place a ruler across it . Using a new, unsharpened pencil or similar item use it to measure from the bottom of the tapered hole to the ruler/straight edge also from the top edge to straight edge . Mark both measurements And compare with the old clutch (hope this makes since) also measure the outside upper(innermost) and lower(outer most) belt groove (edges where belt goes) to see if theres any differences. Easiest way to do that is to set the 2 clutches side by side touching and compare ( both magnet sides up and magnet sides down) if the clutch fits and the belt simply doesn't align you'll eighter have to straight edge align it or pop for a laser. The alignment tolerance for a standard 6rib Serpentine belt is ½ rib for every 6" between closest pulley meaning that if the next closest pulley is 12" away from your clutch the belt can be 1 full rib outa perfect alignment and be in tolerance but if the next closest pulley is 3" away that tolerance shrinks to ¼ rib. Not knowing your equipment that's as close as i can get to advising. Frankenstein is in a 2020 van pulleys are close and alignment has to be made with a laser however my backup machine is a 2000 and the distance between pulleys is much much greater and till Frankenstein I've always aligned the driveshafts by eyeball and straight edge and had no problems
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