My sc belt disintegrated. I believe that I may have overtightened the belt. It looks as if the belt was rubbing against the bottom of the spacer plate that is located between the crank pulley and the sc ribbed idler pulley. Melted rubber had accumulated on the bottom of the plate, a sign that it was rubbing against the plate. Melted rubber also inside the ribs of some of the pulleys. All else looked normal.

Has anyone else experienced this rubbing? Does overtightening the belt cause it to rub against the plate or could something else be causing the rubbing? Vortech said that they never heard of rubbing occurring. I have 3,000+ miles on the sc and I check the belt tension weekly and tighten as needed.

I will be replacing my belt this weekend but wanted to know in advance if there is some other problem that may have caused the rubbing that I should investigate.

 

When the belt is loose, it can rub against one of the top brackets, Mine has the anodizing missing when the belt stretched at first install and rubbed the top plate. If the belt was rubbing for to long, the belt will disintergrate. Overtightening the belt can cause even more problems, such as oil leaking from the seals, bearing damage, etc.

 

I found out the problem. I was able to get a better look at the underside of the car this morning. The ribbed idler pulley is missing and the bolt that holds it in place was sheared at the main mounting plate.