Squeaky serp belt - resolved

[snorky]

I eventually found the problem with my new serp belt last night. Went into the garage to have a go with the talc on the belt or WD40 on the tension pulley which was another suspect. Was surveying the bible for any other clues when I spotted what it was....the indie that serviced it has fitted the belt wrongly....AAARGHH how can they get something like that wrong, bloody hell. Refitted it the correct way- went for quick blat and ...... no squeaky/sqeally noises...thank god for that....GGGrrrr blooody spanner monkeys....

[.Mark]

What do you mean by fitted wrong? Surely there is just a series of pulleys it goes over/under?

[victormeldrew]

Reading the post it looks like they fitted it rotating the wrong way, like fitting a directional tyre backwards. Bit of a blindingly obvious mistake.

[.Mark]

Well I thought that too, but I have been told - by people who know much better than me - that it doesn't matter which way round they go. In fact the one I fitted to mine a few weeks back didn't have any direction indicator on it at all.

[victormeldrew]

I had it in my mind that the belt had arrows on it; maybe I'm thinking of something else. Must go have a look under the bonnet!

[snorky]

originally it went from crank pulley up past the tension pulley over the top of the alternater pulley then across to the PAS pump down and around the water pump and back to the crank

it should be
from crank pulley up past the tension pulley over the top of the alternater down to the water pump up to the PAS pump down to the crank pulley...

doesn't seem much of a change but it stopped it making that bloody awful squeaky noise....maybe it gets more purchase on the belt this way...

[.Mark]

I'd say that was a pretty fundamental fitting error!

[peter miller]

Hi

I had exactly the same problem when I bought mine, the belt ran straight across the top, without dipping down to the water pump, and sounded like a chirping budgie when starting up.
When I looked in my bible I noticed from a pictiure on page 121 that it had been incorrectly fitted. Once changed back the noise dissapeared and that was 5000 miles ago.
It had just been serviced by a TVR specialist.

[victormeldrew]

When my 500 was delivered one of the pulleys was offset, and it chewed through the edge of the belt and snapped it after a couple of thousand miles. The AA guy noticed the problem and shimmed to pulley to line it up with the others before fitting the replacement.

Shouldn't be too much of a surprise that even the factory can get it wrong!