Belt tensioner bolt chewing up belt!!!

[tophusaf]

I have a 97 F-350 the other day when I was looking around the engine I noticed that the bolt that holds on the tensioner sticks too far out and the belt runs right over the head of the bolt. And now the belt is getting torn up because of it. Has anyone ever experianced this problem? Any one have any suggestions?

Thanks
Kris

[forddieseldoctor]

I went and looked on my truck and I am wondering of your belt is installed correctly. I took a couple of pics of my tensioner.

[tophusaf]

Yeap, I bet that is it. The pulley on mine is positioned in the 2 o'clock position where yours is in what looks like the 4/5 o'clock position. I guess I know what I am doing tomorrow. Thanks for the quick reply.

[forddieseldoctor]

Mine's in the 2 o'clock position. The smooth pulley is the tensioner pulley on this model.

[tophusaf]

Well I figured out my problem which leads to another puzzle. My belt was to short, I was running a 118.9" belt which is what all the autoparts store call for (119" actually). Has anyone had this problem? The next size up they had in hat style belt was a 121.5" which does work and there's not to much slack but now every once in a while it sounds like it is slipping.
What size belt do y'all have on your trucks?

[forddieseldoctor]

I have no idea what length. Mine is an oem belt

[tophusaf]

The 121.5 was too long, finally after looking everywhere I found a 120.7 which works but only clears the bolt by millimeters.

[forddieseldoctor]

You got a pic of your tensioner?