<VV> Unique fan belt keeper-oner (Now, Those Flapping Belts)

[Mel Francis]

Ok Doc,

Throwing belts has never really been a problem for me, I just got this idea from all the recent discussion.

Thanks for some great opinions, though. 

Mel
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: RoboMan91324 at aol.com 
  To: mfrancis at wi.rr.com ; virtualvairs at corvair.org 
  Sent: Friday, January 29, 2010 1:01 PM
  Subject: Re: <VV> Unique fan belt keeper-oner (Now, Those Flapping Belts)


  Mel,

  The fan belt will still want to flap and I would think that there would be noise concerns with the belt hitting the sleeves.  Also, I think the belt would probably wear out fairly quickly.  At that point, it would probably be a PITA to replace the belt especially if it happened on the road.  If the belt fails catastrophically, you might have some guide sleeves being thrown around the engine compartment, possibly taking out some other items like a distributor cap, fuel line, etc.

  If you feel a real need to tinker (the vast majority don't) I think an idler wheel as shown in a picture link in a previous post is a much better idea.  If it is in constant rolling contact, it will very effectively shift the natural frequency of the belt much higher and also diminish the amplitude.  If it is not in constant contact, it will at least disturb the excitation each time the belt flaps far enough to touch it.  If the bearing is free spinning and the idler wheel has low enough inertia, the wear on the belt should be minimal.

  Just an opinion.

  Doc
  1960 Corvette; 1961 Rampside; 1962 Rampside; 1964 Spyder coupe; 1965 Greenbrier; 1966 Corsa turbo coupe; 1967 Nova SS; 1968 Camaro ragtop
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  In a message dated 1/28/2010 6:33:30 PM Pacific Standard Time, mfrancis at wi.rr.com writes:


    This discussion of the belt frequency harmonics gave me the alternate idea of assembling a fixed, two-piece sheet metal sleeve, which would form a close-fitting guide tube around the belt, from the idler to the fan pulley. Has this approach ever been tried?

    The Wright brothers were able to get past these same harmonic problems in the very long chain-drives to their two propellers using metal guide tubes and they never had any failures that involved thrown chains.

    Mel