Miata Mailing List: December 1996, Message #122
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   From: (none)

Subject: Re: SSCOR: Short term Sebring results... A little worried about SC belt

   Date: (none)



At 06:13 PM 11/30/96 UT, Matthew Anderson wrote:

>	I have had my Sebring going for a few hundred miles now and other than 

>breaking the first belt I have not had any major problems.  





Matthew,



I've followed a few of your notes and have a few comments.



You said that your first belt broke. This is the first red flag in my mind.

There is not much of a way to break th belt if things are lined up properly.

In a later post you mentioned that you had moved your blower "forward": This

will have the added effect of making the outlet manifold hit the hood and

mis-align the belt runs so they rub on various parts. For 99% of the

installations, the blower should be in the REARMOST position. Double check

your installation, the front bolt that goes into the cylinder head and holds

the main SC bracket should be nested right into the crook of the main

bracket front bend. You can loosen the front bolt and the rear bolt on the

exhaust bracket to move the entire assembly rearwards. Starting from

there,you can work out your belt alignment. As the belts run between the

idlers, they should pretty much "shadaw" each other.



Check your various clearances around the SC parts. You might need to nest

things a bit better to gain more clearance. I've beaten these cars to death

(both 16L and 1.8L with blowers on them) and have found nothing fragile

about them. It sounds like something is rubbing or hitting and giving you

bad vibes (figuratively and literally!) about running the car hard. That is

the indication something is not right with your installation. The kits are

pretty much invisible when installed correctly (from a

noise/vibration/harshness issue).



Your comment on the idler bracket being the right one: Not to worry, the

early versions had the tab, the later ones do not.



If you break a belt, you can run all day long and it will feel like a stock

Miata with a slight intake restriction. No damage will occur with your

engine or supercharger regardless of the miles traveled in this state. Your

power steering will feel stiffer, but other than the increased effort, it is

safe to drive. I'll go back to the broken belt - something is wrong with

your set up. I have never heard of a broken belt. Some folks get slippage

when the tension isn't set correctly, but breaking a belt requires  extreme

forces.



How has your investigation gone thus far?



Norman G

Sebring 1