300zx alternator belt...help ;x

[Ben]

ok well, I haven't even bothered trying to go into the damn thing, but the belt is a little loose and it's making the most ungodly sound when I accelerate if it doesn't warm up for a good 5 minutes. Was wondering if someone could kinda just tell me what's entailed on gettin to the alternater and tightening it. I haven't worked on my Z yet and I don't know of any good manuals for it.

[Teh Ric]

Its very easy man. Jack it up and remove the lower engine cover if you still have it. Should be 6 bolts. The alternator is right there on the bottom. Lightly loosen the alternator mount (17mm bolt) and the tensioner locking nut (red dot in the pic). At that point just start tightening the tensioning bolt (its the long one you can see the threads of in the pic) until the belt feels tight enough. At that point i would go and start the car on stands to make sure it still isn't squealing. If it doesn't you're good to go, if it does just tighten it a little bit more. Good luck with it, pic below.
http://www.ttzd.com/tech/pulley/pulley31.jpg
If you run into problems, feel free to contact myself or Rich (boileralum).

EDIT: As far as manuals, you need to get a service manual for the car. Its typically $50 but details every part of the car as well as diagnostics. I ordered mine from the info found near the back of the owners manual. HIGHLY suggested you get that. Good luck.

[Ben]

thanks bro, I'll order that manual this week

[mr20turbo]

Originally posted by nissanzxman
Its very easy man. Jack it up and remove the lower engine cover if you still have it. Should be 6 bolts.

HAR!!! I THOUGHT IT WAS 4 BOLTS!!!!!!!!!

[Teh Ric]

Hey man, its 4 bolts on my NA cause i'm missing 2. :p

[boileralum]

A tip for tightening the belts too - since it's nearly impossible to accurately measure the deflection. The tip I was given (and that I use when I tighten my belts) is to tighten the belts to the point that you can only twist the belt 90 degrees from the original path. When I first put my motor back in last summer I had a similar problem, but when I tightened the belts using this method the god-awful squealing went away.

[Preludebabygrl]

the Z owners on this board are so helpful!!! I wish there were prelude owners that were anywhere near as helpful, but there aren't too many of us!

[boileralum]

What do you need to know, Kayla? I've owned a couple of Hondas and my best friend has a 99 Prelude SH, so I have a fair share of knowledge about those as well.

[Preludebabygrl]

Originally posted by boileralum
What do you need to know, Kayla? I've owned a couple of Hondas and my best friend has a 99 Prelude SH, so I have a fair share of knowledge about those as well.

I don't need to know anything right now, but it seems every time that I need a question answered quick, no one can help! Thanks though!

[boileralum]

NP

[mr20turbo]

DAMN YOUR PRELUDE OWNING FRIEND RICH!!!! you know what i am talking about :)

[boileralum]

LOL - you should've been faster ;)

[Ben]

Originally posted by Preludebabygrl
the Z owners on this board are so helpful!!! I wish there were prelude owners that were anywhere near as helpful, but there aren't too many of us!
A.) there's only like 4 of us, we gotta be a tight nit community.
B.)Prelude owners tend to be girls, in fact, the only prelude owners I know on this board are girls.

[mayhem]

with 22 lbs of force the alt belt should deflect .28-.31 inches. like mentioned it's hard to accurately estimate but it'll at least give you an idea. you want to apply the force on the belt between the alt pulley and the crankshaft pulley.

my engine cover has 6 twist ties instead of 6 bolts :P

[Ben]

Originally posted by mayhem
with 22 lbs of force the alt belt should deflect .28-.31 inches. like mentioned it's hard to accurately estimate but it'll at least give you an idea. you want to apply the force on the belt between the alt pulley and the crankshaft pulley.

english

[mayhem]

Originally posted by Ben
english

are you serious?

[Ben]

maybe it's something to do with actually being under the car and messing with the alternator belt, but yeah, I have no idea what you just said. 22 lbs deflects blah blah, I don't know what that means ;x nor do I know if it's good or not

[boileralum]

He did speak in English, though his punctuation & capitalizations may have been off a little bit ;). Basically, the way you are supposed to see if a belt is tight enough is by pushing on the belt in the middle of where it goes from the crank pully to the alternator, and measuring the deflection - how far you are able to push the belt in. The problem that mayhem is forgetting too, though, is that on the Z, the monster belt driven fan & shroud make it nearly impossible to get your hands in there to actually measure it. Just stick with the flipping over trick and you'll be fine.

[mayhem]

neither of my shift keys work. lol

i didn't realize that the fan shroud on the Z's was that much larger than other VG applications? Is it just like that on the TT's or both NA and TT's? After pulling the bottom engine cover off from the J30 I don't have any problems reaching the belts. Problem is just having to go through the bottom vs. the top like most cars.

[boileralum]

The fan shroud is big, and there is not a lot of clearance between it and the mengine. Plus, isn't the J30 fan elecric instead of belt-driven? Definitely the only way to get to the belts on a Z is from the bottom, but it still is difficult to get a deflection gauge in there so you can read it.

[mayhem]

Originally posted by boileralum
Plus, isn't the J30 fan elecric instead of belt-driven?

It's belt driven. I wish it was electric. That would save a lot of space. But I think there were issues with an electric fan creating enough cfm's. Can't remember the details.

Oh well. Good luck with the new belts!

[boileralum]

Yeah, the belt driven fans on the Zs at least are rated at about 6000 cfm. The highest CFM I've seen advertised for any electric fans is about 3000, so it's pretty much impossible to match the cooling power of the stock fan.