Anyone know how tight the belt tensioner is supposed to be in ft/lbs?

 

I thought you measured the deflection of the belt by using a straightedge and a ruler???

 

You do. Take a ruler and put it on your belt, using the ac and crankshaft pulley so keep it straight, then use a straight edge and push the belt up as much as u can easily, there should be less than an inch (about 3/4 inch) play.

 

thanks guys

 

I had to replace my water pump and i got the belts done too all on my 97 SE then when i would start my car i would hear a squeak from the belts. Then me and a buddy guess it was because the belt was loose. Now there are 2 belts, the smaller one is hard to get at and I couldnt really work on it, so then i worked on the big one. At first i must have loosen it for squeak the loudest and the longest i ever heard. So then i just slowly tight it(ive heard that the big belt controls the alternator and the water pump which if too tight will destory them and i already had to replace the waterpump and the factory alternator recall) til it didnt squeak. I thought it was all good, doing this fix in the summer, now winter comes and it starts squeaking again even in the middle of driving. This will cause diming of my lights on my dash and even weaker vent blowing. Now i think that the belt must have worn a little more and needs tighting but i look at the belt and tested it with the ruler and it seems to be fine. I bet i could just do a bit tighter and it would be peachy but maybe i have a bad belt??? The belt doesnt seem to have any cracks but once i thought i saw a part of the belt on the inside that was missing the groves. Just looking for input as to the next step as to replace or tighten.

 

Squeaking isn't a sign of bad belts its a sign of loose belts, if u look at the splines on the belt and there aren't more than 2 ridges cracked off in a row (across the belt) then ur fine. Belts last a pretty long time in maxes, but careful i had one just pop on me after whining for awhile without me ever noticing till me car wouldn't start cause the alternator wasn't charging the battery anymore.

 

From the How-To's, this should help you out

http://forums.maxima.org/showpost.ph...5&postcount=31

 

3/4 of an inch? I would suggest 1/4 inch in the belt.

 

1/4" IS more like it. Vortech is right. One more thing, in the colder weeather if your belts squeal like a baby pig and everything is tightened to spec, I would suggest taking the larger belt off and removing the little pulley at the bottom of the tensioner. (It is the ONLY pulley without the grooves for the ribs in the belt (flat surfaced pulley)). Anyways after removal, if it is really shiny on the flat side just sand her right on down to a dull finish. I used a drill sander with 120 grit discs and it came out perfect. hasn't made a sound since. Hope I helped someone.