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Help - tensioner pulley oriented in wrong position?
Hi all, could use some guidance here as I'm stuck at the moment. I have a '92 5.8 with a 2G alternator. I did the conversion over to 3G, thus had my belt off. Not sure why I didn't notice this when I first released the tension to get the belt off originally, but when I went to re-install the belt I noticed the idler is now oriented in a lower position (see pics for reference). I've tried adjusting the tensioner around and even pulled the assembly off to try and re-install the assembly in it's original position, but it only wants to sit in this new position now. It still seems to function as before as I can put a wrench on the idler and crank it up like its relieving tension to slip the belt back on.
Only thing I can think of is the tensioner assembly may have broken somehow when I was applying pressure to get the belt off? Before I got buy a new assembly I thought I would see if anyone has any bright ideas here.
Thankfully I took a before pic of the engine bay and am attaching pics for reference. The pic showing the assembly aligned left to right is the before shot. The pic showing the idler down lower is where it is sitting now. Before photo Current situation
Hopefully this helps. The tensioner is obviously spring loaded, wanting to push down (clockwise) into the belt to keep it tight. When you remove the belt, the tensioner rotates until the limiting tab touches where I have drawn a red line. If you put a wrench on the tensioner, you can rotate it until the tab touches where I have drawn a blue line. This is the full sweep of the tensioner.
When you install a new belt, the tensioner should resume function as it did before, somewhere near the center of its total range, allowing it to freely move as the belt naturally tightens and loosens while the engine runs.
