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Gang,
It was "change the impeller" day yesterday. As I was finishing and replacing the serpentine belt, I noticed that the belt tensioner was not working properly. If I put a 15mm wrench on it and pushed it to get slack in the belt, it would not automatically retract. It was sticking. If I pulled back on the wrench it would move back, but it was clearly hitting something and not working as it should. The tensioner must move freely. It's the spring inside of it that maintains the proper belt tension at all times.
Anyway, time to get into it. This is somewhat different from my 2017 which had the ZR4 engine in it as well. In 2019 (and maybe other years) the ECM bracket shares two big bolts with the belt tensioner. This was the source of the problem. In the photo below, the tab in RED is what I saw when I removed the bracket. This had been cut back at the factory. It's the one in GREEN that was the problem. It was not cut back and therefore, the belt tensioner was binding on this tab.
I used a Dremel to cut some of the metal away here and allow for proper clearance. I removed less than 1/8". Once everything went back in, the tensioner was free to move as needed. Fairly easy fix.
-Charles
It was "change the impeller" day yesterday. As I was finishing and replacing the serpentine belt, I noticed that the belt tensioner was not working properly. If I put a 15mm wrench on it and pushed it to get slack in the belt, it would not automatically retract. It was sticking. If I pulled back on the wrench it would move back, but it was clearly hitting something and not working as it should. The tensioner must move freely. It's the spring inside of it that maintains the proper belt tension at all times.
Anyway, time to get into it. This is somewhat different from my 2017 which had the ZR4 engine in it as well. In 2019 (and maybe other years) the ECM bracket shares two big bolts with the belt tensioner. This was the source of the problem. In the photo below, the tab in RED is what I saw when I removed the bracket. This had been cut back at the factory. It's the one in GREEN that was the problem. It was not cut back and therefore, the belt tensioner was binding on this tab.
I used a Dremel to cut some of the metal away here and allow for proper clearance. I removed less than 1/8". Once everything went back in, the tensioner was free to move as needed. Fairly easy fix.
-Charles
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