Taking the plunge. My journey as an O/O.

TA, Dayton, OH.

I overnighted in their lot, so I just walked in, explained the situation, and the lead mechanic was immediately put on fixing my problem.

He removed the belts, then tested the belt tensioner of the belt that was falling apart. There was a bit of wobble in it, but not much. Enough though, he thinks, to allow the belt to walk.

The old belts were not fraying, but they were perhaps a bit looser. After putting new belts on, the failing tensioner would have been under a bit more stress.

This makes some sense.

He replaced the tensioner, and the damaged belt.

All I paid for the second go around was the tensioner and 30 minutes labor for tensioner install.

So, at this point I have a new tensioner, and two new belts.

Hopefully, this issue stays resolved, and I am trouble free for a while. I'm getting a bit tired of engine maintenance.

 

Update.

After a bit less than 300 road miles, i have heard no rhythmic squeaking, and when I opened the hood and looked, the belts were in good condition.

Hopefully, this issue is now behind me.

 

I did go out on the floor, and was there when the tech was checking belt alignment. I did notice the belt was riding slightly off center of the tensioner, but it was not riding back and forth. If we had run the engine more than a few minutes, maybe it would have. It certainly started chopping itself up during opti-idle that night, but opti-idle cycles (if they are brought on solely by battery recharge) tend to be about 20 to 30 minutes.

So, it turns out the belts were not the whole problem. In fact they weren't really the problem at all. The old tensioner and old belt worked fine until the engine got up to full temp. Then the old belt was just loose enough to slip a bit, and the old tensioner barely was able to keep it in it's proper channel.

When new belts were put on, the tensioner had more pressure applied to it, and, after the engine and belt heated up, it then twisted enough to allow the new belt to move farther out of line, and ride out of channel.

If a new tensioner had been put in and the old belts kept, likely it would have been fine, for a while. The belt was old and I wanted it replaced months ago, but that didn't happen due to miscommunication.

Now I have a new tensioner and two new belts. I would rather get maintenance done while on home time or a 34, but at least this shop time only lost me a little time, not even enough to put on time delivery of my current load at risk.