So i decided to tighten my sc belt as it was a little loose. I put the car on the lift and tried to loosen the locknut for the tensioner and i rounded the nut you rotten prick! So now im wondering if any of you vortech guys have had this issue and is there a better replacement nut ? It seems the vortech nut is VERY soft.

 

I ground down a closed end wrench to fit between the oil cooler hose and the locknut.

Custom tools FTWii

 

well, i had a similar problem, and although my method of fixing it probably isnt the best, it works. Long story short my bolt got stuck in the tensioner for w/e reason, ended up breaking the head of the bolt off trying to adjust tension. Bought a piece of threaded stock (like a big bolt w/o a head, just threaded shaft) and welded a nut onto the end of it. Drilled out the stuck remains of the origional tensioner, rethreaded it to match my piece of stock and now i use nuts on either side of that horseshoe looking arch the tensioner bolt runs through. So basically i just made a tensioner myself and i use a crows foot wrench to move the nut up and down the stock to tighten/loosen. works just fine, bit mroe effort but its okay.


i had a used kit, mine was siezed in there when i got it, and i never saw a lock nut. My original bolt had a groove kind of like a collar that was seated under the horseshoe looking piece that allowed the bolt to turn w/o movement. causeing the tensioner to be the piece moving up and down the threads. Where is the lock nut you stripped?

 

you should check out sideway's setup.. He replaced it with a different locknut. I know what you'er talkin bout though, its a pain in the ass to change, i'll be including a new one when I sell my kit as the old one is a lil too worn out as well

 

I went with a mil spec aircraft locking nut. Best $10 spent.

 

Where might i find that nut ? Thanks for the help !

 

It's also much smaller than the 3/4" locknut Vortech uses... Did you change the idler pulley shaft too?

 

I like the "Sideways" modification.
What the majority of Vortech owners don't realize is that the "Lock Nut" used on the pulley has a liner(plastic or vinyl). This "Locking Nut" was intended to ONLY be tightened once.
When you loosen the Locking Nut(to change a Belt or Uninstall the Unit), it strips the Liner and will cause the screw to weaken under vibration. It's better to replace the nut (you can find at a local hardware store...in addition, the description of the nut is in your Vortech manual) whenever you have to loosen it (pain in the ass i know). In addition to wearing out the Liner, as mentioned by another member, you'll also end up stripping the screw. For some reason that screw is made of a soft metal and chews up easily.
I found this out the hard way at the "Dragon " this year and couldn't figure out why the damn thing kept loosening on me. I didn't take into account that i had the belt changed and the Liner was worn out causing the now "Un-Locking Nut" to loosen in a short period of driving time.
Anyway, hope this helps someone out.

 

I have some. PM me if you want one. These are hard to locate.

 

I have more if anyone is interested just PM me.