Engine: Is there a trick to putting on supercharger belts??

[Buck]

On the 289 with a supercharger the tensioner pully is spring loaded. I can compress the spring but I can't hold it and get the belt on the supercharger pulley. I have to do everything by myself and I just can't hold the spring and feed the belt too. Is there anyway to lock the spring compressed? thanks for your help.

[Warren Webb]

Unlike modern serpentine belts the short answer is no. However, if your having that much of a problem I would place a piece of masking tape, with the belt in place, over the crankshaft pulley to hold the belt in place. Then with the belt on the tensioner pulley, place your left hand on the pulley & push inward, against the spring pressure, and with your right place the belt onto the blower pulley. If afterwards you forget to remove the masking tape its no biggie cause when you fire it up that will be the first thing flown off. Let us know how you make out.

[bezhawk]

Peter Stant makes a tool just for this purpose.
Also, if you happen to want an R2 with air conditioning, he makes those brackets too.
Check the AOAI forum, or Bob Johnstones website.

[Kdancy]

A tool is pretty easy to make, just figure a bar with two fingers sticking out in a position to "lever" or roll the tensioner arm over while slipping the belt in place.

[SN-60]

It does seem that replacing belts (belt) is a bit more of a challenge on the sidemount setups than the top mount systems.

[Lenny R2]

I bought a supercharger belt tool from Silvertone exhaust in Canada i think.

[warrlaw1]

Silvertone is Don Simmons and he still advertises in TW. Great guy. Did my SS exhaust.

[KOOL R2]

I developed a belt tool to remove the blower belts from my R2 Avanti. They are made of stainless steel and sold by Ron Rogers who has a website at http//rogersprotofab.com His phone number is 613-392-8268 His e-mail is rogersprotofab@xplornet.com Check with Ron for the current price.

Peter Sant
KOOL R2