Need Help Locating A Heavy Duty Serpentine Belt Tensioner.

Bullitt347

I have been doing it wrong this whole time
15 Year Member
Mar 23, 2007
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Middle of Maine
I tried using the ThumpRRR Racing tensioner
PM-1008-76s.jpg

But it tensions in an anti-clockwise rotation and the 5.0 Foxbody cars take a clockwise rotation tensioner. ThumpRRR Racing said they could not modify to work on a 5.0 Mustang, even though their site claims the tensioner will work on all 84-95 Fords. They at least took it back and credited my card back the $510.00 that bad boy cost. As the drag car I am building is using an 8-rib serp belt to drive the Kenne Bell 2.8LQ supercharger to the tune of 20+psi I am looking for something a bit stronger than the stock cast tensioner. Anyone have any ideas?
 
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mines just an old school style with and adjustment rod...
 

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I don't know about a manual tensioner. I know with the stock type tensioner the tensioner will tighten up the belt when you accelerate the engine, and slacken off a bit when the throttle is released. Don't know if that is a good thing or not when driving a supercharger. Certainly having the belt get tighter at WOT would be a good thing to cut down on belt slip, if that is an issue. You guys provided pics of a manual tensioner for a freakin' alternator :rlaugh:.........how bout one used in a supercharger application. Just a little bit different load being ran through that belt for the blower compared to an alternator. Anyhow, the feed back is appreciated, gets the old noggin thinking :thinking:
 
I don't know about a manual tensioner. I know with the stock type tensioner the tensioner will tighten up the belt when you accelerate the engine, and slacken off a bit when the throttle is released. Don't know if that is a good thing or not when driving a supercharger. Certainly having the belt get tighter at WOT would be a good thing to cut down on belt slip, if that is an issue. You guys provided pics of a manual tensioner for a freakin' alternator :rlaugh:.........how bout one used in a supercharger application. Just a little bit different load being ran through that belt for the blower compared to an alternator. Anyhow, the feed back is appreciated, gets the old noggin thinking :thinking:


Well, the alternator is just about the easiest component to swivel and use as a manual adjuster. My car is turbo and I tension with the alternator.. Are you running an alternator? Why don't you post pics and it'll help with ideas? March makes some nice manual tensioners you might be able to adapt. Hard to go wrong with a good ol' turnbuckle.

I realize you are using a blower, but seeing what you've got would help..
 
Well the thing is, I am using the stock alternator mounting bracket that has the provision for the stock type tensioner.
DSC00487_zps56be311f.jpg

This picture is dated but gives you an idea. The alternator now sports a 4" dia pulley and the supercharger has been moved up 1.5" and forward 3.4". Plus the support plate for the supercharger and idler pulley has been refined, but that does not change the basic layout of the drive belt. The whole point of wanting a HD tensioner is that if it fits in the stock location, then I don't have to monkey around with fabricating something else up to accommodate it. Lord knows I have customized so much as it is, that I would like to take the easy way out on this if possible.
 
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Mine replaces the factory alternator bracket and relocates the alt to make room for the turbo. It may not be heavy enough for what you want, but it installed easy and works great. On3 turbo kit. Some people hate 'em.. I got no complaints. I'll try to post a pic when I get off work.
 
*GASP*

Please tell me that you're going to make this into a kit! :drool:

How high does that thing sit?
It sits to high for a stock hood for sure. I am still in the finalizing stages of the build. One thing leads to another and the next thing you know you are re-engineering everything to take advantage of a change that was made, that at the time seemed to be insignificant.
 
I do not know yet. But if one were to not raise the supercharger 1.5" like I did, then lowered the k-member in the car a bit, which you would offset this increase in ride height with coil-over struts, then maybe not much of a cowl at all. My finished inlet would have to be revised to place the throttle body lower, but it is all do-able. I will certainly take some pic's and measurements when it is all said and done. Right now I have a Harwood 6" Carbon fiber cowl hood that goes to the windshield, and some base measurements show that it is much bigger than I really need. But hey, it looks Kool.