Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi all, every now and then I try and improve a part of the Elan - some say improve - some say ruin - recently I fitted a Burton toothed belt conversion for the water pump/alternator.

After a bizarre conversation with Burtons when they told me that the undersize waterpump pulley they sent me was to be press fitted, they sent me new one milled to the correct size.

Having fitted the three pullies and the 1 inch belt there was a ticking/clicking/whining noise coming from the area.

At first I thought it might have been the timing chain - I'd tensioned it up in a service. Rechecking with the camcover off everything was correct chain wise.

I've read a few articles that talk about industrial belts can be noisey:
http://www.pfeiferindustries.com/troubl ... noise.html

Far from 'tensionless' this has increased the tension when I run the car.

Can anyone tell me is the belt noise normal? Next visit to the car, I'll slide the belt off and run the car 'beltless' for a minute or so to see if it goes. Failing that, I'll be changing back to V belt.

ta

Hi Sadlotus

I have a car (not Lotus) with a tooth belt water pump/alternator drive and it does make a noise but luckily being rear engined I do not really notice it.

John

I have a tooth belt on my Elan. Drove me crazy with the sound you are talking about. I thought it was a bad bearing in the alternator. I have to fashion up a adjustment piece to allow me to tighten up the alternator toothed belt. Solved the problem for me.

Hi Tony
The only issue I would have with having a "tight" toothed belt is that I made my tooth belt drive to relieve lateral loading on the water pump, I can still adjust the belt tension vie the alternator but prefer to run with a little bit of slack - as I say rear engine so I leave the noise behind.
John

I am not an expert on drive systems, tooth belts or anything like that.

But it seems to me that the "tooth" or "teeth" change the load from a lateral pulling load to a load placed on the teeth.
I don't think "tight" as long it is within reason makes that much of a load. Certainly not like a conventional fan belt.

I'm running one on my sprint and it is very loose (possibly too loose) but it hasn't flown off yet (even after a recent event seeing max revs) and it isn't offensively loud.
I realise this doesn't help much but it might be worth slackening off a bit more as a test.
Hope this helps
Gavin

Thanks all, seems to be a concensus here. I'll still try beltless for a minute just for confirmation.
tvacc - you're right, it sounds exactly like an alternator bearing.

Will report back when I have more info