Water Maker pump custom engine mount pulley alignment

[GreenHeaven]

Converted and a/c pulley and clutch to drive the watermaker. a 3 piston cat pump. Pulley is getting very hot. I suspect belt alignment. a/c parts were new. Its very difficult to align pulleys perfectly in tight space with brackets made in machine shops.
Belt tension is also a question. Belt is very tight with belt tensioner installed. I think the tensioner spring load was calculated based on a longer run of belt.
Thoughts?

[Lepke]

Pulleys need to be aligned for longevity.

Cat pump requires more power transferred than the a/c. If the belt is too tight it puts additional stress on the bearing and it will heat up. If the bearing runs too hot for too long, it will lose it's lube and fail. If the clutch is marginal, it will fail.

Probably the a/c clutch isn't up to the task. Either a higher rated HD clutch or you might be better with a regular drive pulley and just take off the belt when not using.

[GreenHeaven]

Originally Posted by Lepke

Pulleys need to be aligned for longevity.

Cat pump requires more power transferred than the a/c. If the belt is too tight it puts additional stress on the bearing and it will heat up. If the bearing runs too hot for too long, it will lose it's lube and fail. If the clutch is marginal, it will fail.

Probably the a/c clutch isn't up to the task. Either a higher rated HD clutch or you might be better with a regular drive pulley and just take off the belt when not using.

Interesting thoughts.
IN researching a/c power consumptions a little more, it seems they can take up 5hp. The clutch needs to be able to handle cycling even at 3000 or 4000 rpm.
This clutch replaces a 1.5hp elec motor at 1500 rpm, so i would be surprised if the clutch is the problem.
It is possible that the elec clutch is drawing power sufficient to cause a voltage drop at the clutch, although I believe it is only 3A.
Another possibility is the bearings got fried in the fabrication procss somehow, or they are just cheap chines junk.
frustrating

[akopac]

Use a dowel across the pulleys with no belt to check allignment

[SailingHarmonie]

Originally Posted by GreenHeaven

Converted and a/c pulley and clutch to drive the watermaker. a 3 piston cat pump. Pulley is getting very hot. I suspect belt alignment. a/c parts were new. Its very difficult to align pulleys perfectly in tight space with brackets made in machine shops.

It doesn't matter how hard it is, you still have to get it right if you want it to work.

Originally Posted by GreenHeaven

Belt tension is also a question. Belt is very tight with belt tensioner installed. I think the tensioner spring load was calculated based on a longer run of belt.
Thoughts?

Actually, correct belt tension is almost independent of belt length. With longer runs of belt the same tension allows more deflection with the same pressure, but that's expected. Think about it, the forces on the pulleys (which is the important bit) stay the same as the belt gets longer.

Are you sure the belt is the right size? For BOTH pulleys? A belt bottoming out on the pulley's v-groove can over heat very quickly and be a very poor transferrer of power, but look ok on first inspection.

Are you running the pump at the same speed as before the switch? If you are running it significantly faster than you did with the electric motor its horsepower needs will be much higher.

[GreenHeaven]

Originally Posted by SailingHarmonie

It doesn't matter how hard it is, you still have to get it right if you want it to work.



Actually, correct belt tension is almost independent of belt length. With longer runs of belt the same tension allows more deflection with the same pressure, but that's expected. Think about it, the forces on the pulleys (which is the important bit) stay the same as the belt gets longer.

Are you sure the belt is the right size? For BOTH pulleys? A belt bottoming out on the pulley's v-groove can over heat very quickly and be a very poor transferrer of power, but look ok on first inspection.

Are you running the pump at the same speed as before the switch? If you are running it significantly faster than you did with the electric motor its horsepower needs will be much higher.

Its a serpentine belt, 6 grooves
the belt is correct

[Lepke]

I use to run a cat pump on a 4108 with a clutch designed for a hydraulic pump w/o problems. But I found I preferred to run the cat with an electric motor.

[akopac]

I had a refrigeration compressor hanging off my engine mount on my 4108. Eventually the belt tension and vibration cracked the front plate of the engine causing an oil leak among other things. Took like 10 years, but it can happens. .