For many years, drive belts, V-belts, multi-vee-belts, and serpentine belts have already been used to transmit power from the engine crankshaft pulley to add-ons, such as the power Car Pulley Belt steering pump, air-con compressor, water pump, or cooling fans. Toothed timing belts and timing chains, too, are used to transmit power from the crankshaft to the camshafts, and some from the camshaft to camshaft, based on engine design.

The drive belt, timing belt, or timing chain will not work well, or for lengthy, if, with incorrect tension. A loose drive belt won’t drive the accessory reliably, slipping and making noise. Conversely, an excessively restricted belt may cause item or pulley bearing damage. Various types of tensioner pulley maintain long-term engine and accessory quietness and reliability.

Tightening or Loosening
Sometimes, maintenance or repair will require tightening or loosening a tensioner pulley. Replacing a drive belt or timing belt, for instance, would need you to loosen a tensioner pulley to make room for the brand new belt, as the brand new belt is smaller compared to the worn drive belt.

You will have to tighten a tensioner pulley, in most cases, after the installation of a new drive belt, or to change for a stretched drive belt that hasn’t worn enough to warrant replacement. Stretch belts don’t require tensioner pulleys but are “stretched” into place using a special tool-always utilize the special tool to avoid belt damage.

Tensioner pulleys generally fall into two classes: accessory-integrated (AI) and non-accessory-integrated (NAI). Think of AI tensioners as adjustable add-ons, such as an alternator, and NAI tensioners as adjustable idler pulleys. There are three types of tensioner pulleys and many methods to loosen them.
Mechanical tensioner pulleys will be the simplest, the majority of common, and least susceptible to failure. There can be one caveat, nevertheless, as mechanical tensioner pulleys need manual adjustment. This makes them prone to user error, resulting in insufficient or extreme belt pressure. Additionally, they have to be adjusted to compensate for belt stretch over time.