Examination
Driven, or V-shaped (as they are sometimes called), belts are located at the front of the powertrain and play an important role in the operation of the engine and many other vehicle systems. Belts are subject to wear over time and should be inspected regularly as part of your vehicle's routine maintenance schedule to avoid serious engine failures that can be costly to fix.
Note: The V-belt family also includes multi-rib belts.
The number of drive belts used depends on the vehicle configuration. Belts are used to drive auxiliary units such as the generator, steering and water pumps, air conditioning compressor, etc. Depending on the pulley arrangement, more than one unit can be driven by one belt.
1a. Turn off the engine, open the hood and locate the drive belts at the front of the power unit. Using a flashlight, feel the belts along their entire length with your fingers, checking for cracks and delamination. The presence of abrasions, polished areas and other obvious defects on the belt is also unacceptable (see accompanying illustrations).
1b. Inspect the belts from both sides by twisting them.
2. The belt tension force is checked by pressing it with the thumb on the section in the middle between two adjacent pulleys. The pressure should be firm enough. The parameter characterizing the belt tension force is the amount of its deflection when pressed (see accompanying illustration). As a rule, if the pulleys are spaced from 180 to 280 mm apart, the deflection should be 6.4 mm; if the distance between pulleys is 305÷405 mm, the deflection of a V-belt should be 12.5 mm, and of a multi-ribbed belt – 6.4 mm.
Adjustment
If necessary, the tension force of the drive belt is adjusted by shifting the driven unit in the appropriate direction.
1a. To adjust the tension of the generator drive belt, loosen the axial and adjusting bolts of the latter and move the unit to the appropriate side (see accompanying illustration).
1b. Once the adjustment is complete, tighten the bolts. The A/C compressor, on the other hand, is rigidly fixed, but is equipped with a tension roller that allows adjustment of the belt tension force (see accompanying illustration).
1c. To adjust the tension of the steering pump drive belt, loosen the adjusting bolts and then use the wing nut on some models, or move the pump housing to the appropriate side on others. 2. Once you have completed the adjustment, make sure the belt tension is correct (see above). Repeat the adjustment procedure if necessary.
Replacement
1. To replace the drive belt, loosen the bolts securing the unit/tension roller as you did when adjusting it and remove the belt from the pulleys. It makes sense to replace all drive belts at once. Before finally removing the belt from the car, mark the direction of rotation of the belt and the pattern of its routing in the pulley grooves.
2. When buying new belts, take the old ones with you as samples - replacement belts must strictly correspond to the old ones in size.
3. Once replacement is complete, adjust the tension of the new belts (see above).
(Original published on this resource «hondabook.ru»)