Is my belt tensioner worn out?

[rvaughn801]

There is squeaking from the belt, and the belt is fairly new. I replaced the "with A/C" belt with a "non A/C" because of compressor noise. The belt is riding 3/8" to the front of the tensioner pulley. With the belt off, I can pretty easily flex the tensioner 1/2" to the front and rear of the truck.



I took a picture, with the belt on (yellow), and white tape marking the pulley. On the picture you are standing at the passenger side fender, peering down past the alternator. It is clear tensioner does not line up with the other pulleys. You can see the right (front) of the belt is a little fuzzy from rubbing on the tensioner arm.



I just checked NAPA -$122 bucks! :--)



Questions:

1. Anything else to check while the belt is off?

2. Is it time to do a water pump (with over 200k)?

3. Any particular brand to buy?



Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[TShikoski]

Belt Tensioner

Having just replaced mine which had much much less play, I would say "YES".

However, it may just be the bolt which has worn excessively. You will need to remove the tensioner to properly diagnosis the problem. I also had a slight noise in the bearing so I replaced both the bolt and tensioner.



Your price is in the ball park. I ordered mine from the local Cummins engine repair guys at around the same amount.



BTW, Prior to ordering from Cummins, I found the following:

DAYCO Part numbers 89219 for Plastic roller and 89403 for steel.



Tom

 

[markha1]

when my tensioner went bad I was damaging belts, the front edge started to fray then it began to jump pully tracks. I think I got my new assembly from O'Rileys for conciderably less and it has worked fine ever since

 

[boatpuller]

I got a Dayco at Autozone, looks identical to the factory original except that the square for a ratchet to release tension is 1/2" drive instead of 3/8". Was less than $70

 

[rvaughn801]

Fixed

I installed an Autozone (Dayco) tensioner. The new one had some sloppy machine work on top (opposite the pulley) that just rubbed the alternator fan. But the price is right.