Those belts are riding high in the pulleys. The early cars had the high angle groves and used the smaller V-Belt design from Gates. I have the Gates v-belts on my car, and the Sanden SD compressor with the wider grove in the pulley and have had no issues at all with belts on the AC system. My V-belt does ride low in the compressor pulley, but it seems to work just fine. Last time I swapped it out, the belt had 3-4000 miles on it and the belt I removed looked just fine with little to no wear or degradation. RICH: I would suggest you keep an eye on that larger belt and see if you have any dust being thrown around back there. You’ll know when you see fine black dust covering everything on the cam-belt covers and around the lower pulley's. NOTE: I did run a larger belt for a while like you are but it seemed to be slipping and degrading so I swapped it out for the V-belt. And I stand corrected on the Sanyko/Sanden. I did not realize Sandey/Sanyko production in Taiwan in 1981. It is entirely possible that the late models did in fact have Sanden badged compressors.
Oh, if you still have your OEM York Pulley/clutch, it might be possible to retrofit it to the Sanden compressor??? I thought about it, but mine worked fine I never went any further.
Sean: Thanks for the heads-up. I checked while still on the lift and did not see any dust and the belt looks good despite about 2 years and 2K miles. I will keep checking. I do have my OEM compressor with the pulley clutch but I want to keep them together (OEM compressor is still good) but I will compare the grooves, since should be the same as the crankshaft pulley, to my Sanden.
Rich, thanks. That is a "normal" Dayco V-belt that obviously rides nicely in your compressor clutch groove - from what I can see, it is a standard V angle, not a 60° (see my screenshot of your clutch pulley). So no issue on the compressor side. Good!!!! I'll remember that I am in contact with Rock but haven't had my belt question answered satisfactorily for 2-belt Polyflex cars. That is why I am so interested in your experience. I have fitted a regular Gates 6217MC, AVX10 x 925 La for a test a couple of months ago and it got eaten away by the wrong pulley sections within a few hundred miles - besides squealing at low rpm and eventually wrapping itself around the crank pulley effectively stalling the engine. It would probably, due to the section difference. I guess for the idler load, that wouldn't really cause a problem though. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Rich, the belt visible there is the water pump/alternator belt - the a/c belt is the one close the engine, hidden in your picture I think. It would be interesting to know the section of your crankhaft pulley for the a/c belt. The extended unused pulley is a normal V-belt section, not a Polyflex.
Thanks Rich - the regular V-belt your are using does ride a little hight in the idler - you can also see quite pronounced wear marks on the belt's side. But it looks like it's working nevertheless. I cannot tell if your crankshaft pulley has been modified to a 60° section - but it looks like not, from your shot. Maybe you can stick a 60° cardboard section into it to see if it fits? The regular angle is around 38° I think, so very visibly different. Image Unavailable, Please Login
The output shaft sections and pulley diameters are very different between the two makes, so there wouldn't be any easy swap possible.
Difficult to get a really good shot of the AC belt in my crankshaft pulley but...remembered I also had my original AC belt so here is a shot of the original belt in my original AC compressor pulley (which I am sure is/appears to be the same, as my crankshaft pulley). Next will be a photo of the new belt in the original AC compressor pulley and it rides a little higher just like it does on my crankshaft pulley, but it is working. I am now alerted to watch it more closely. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Here is pic of my new belt (actually my spare) in the original AC pulley that shows how much higher this belt rides in the groove. This is what that belt looks like on my crankshaft pulley, again I just can't get a good photo that illustrates that fit. Without looking at my records I would estimate this belt has been in service for about 2 years and 2K miles. I will post a 3rd pic of the two belts side by side that shows the profile. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Here is how the new belt fits in the groove, both belts ride on the shoulder and appear to match the angle. Image Unavailable, Please Login
The Euro cars with Sanden compressors used the Gates Polyflex belts as standard. They are technically the wrong profile for the pulley but seem to work. My Lotus Esprit has the same Sanden compressor as my 328 and Lotus used the correct belt profile which rides higher in the V.
Easy to spot the difference of the sheave angle. I am surprised your current standard V-belt didn't get eaten away like mine did, within a few hundred miles... Below a few sections I drew up in scale for comparison. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Rich, do you have a new #15340 belt you could measure the upper/lower width and its hight so I can draw up the section in scale for comparison?
Andy, thanks - that is what I understand from QV Sanden crank pulley photo I have Are you saying that the Ferrari-delivered Sanden compressor pulley didn't have a Polyflex 60° sheave angle section but a normal V-belt section? But the 328 has a 3-belt set-up with regular belts anyway, right? That should fit normally, shouldn't it? a couple of millimetres higher than the pulley od?
On the 328 the 3 belts are all Polyflex and the A/C belt sits lower in the pulley. I am not 100% sure but when I was investigating this before (actually because I suspected I had the wrong belt on the Lotus) I found that the 328 compressor had the standard V belt profile. I cant check this for sure on the car right now as I am away. On the Lotus the belt, which is a standard V, sits 1mm or so proud.
As I mentioned on the other tech section this was no big deal when I did my conversion. I just used a regular off the shelf Gates belt of the right length and used it. It worked fine without any issues. Don't over engineer this . Oh it wasn't a polyflex belt either. It fit the Sanden pulley and rode a little high in the crank pulley but it worked well for 4-6 years and even after I sold the car.
