Serpentine Belt-- Updated Thread, Clewitt System Install Photos Options

[Robarabian]

Ok, here is my stab at an installation thread.

1) I am a home mechanic, not the Red Barn. Please be constructive, I am sure there are several better ways, but this is what I did and it works... at least so far.

2) You will see a red fan and a silver fan. I had to switch them in the end, for alignment purposes. I haven't figured out why yet.

3) I love the way it turned out.

Here goes nothing...:

You start by removing your pulleys from both the fan and the crank. The crank one goes on easy, and I used a new bolt that I bought with the kit from Clewitt.


The instructions say to make sure there are no burrs on your fan. This is important. It was a tight fit, I ended up doing a bit of sanding and cleaning up the fan pulley area to get the Clewitt pulley to fit on and off. It says you can use shims to make sure everything is straight.

I used my 911 cam chain straight edge that I got from Stomski Racing to line up the pulleys.

Once you know they are in alignment, you need to mount the tensioner. In my case, I had to fabricate a bracket. On the left side, the tins would be in the way on my particular engine. I used the right side mount bolt.

Note: Clewitt's tensioner is on an eccentric, so it can be tensioned from either side, it is a universal as far as that goes. It works at about any angle.

I used a beefy angle mount I had, and a piece of straight / flat bar. After measuring it up, I mig welded both sides, and ground em down a bit since I am not a super welder.

I drilled the mounting holes and mounted it up. Once it is in place, I fiddled with where I wanted it. I notched my angle mount so it would sort of catch my engine mount and lock into place to avoid any rotation due to tension. I got lucky here.

After test fitting it and tensioning it, I shortened one end and then painted it black. Clewitt pre-threads it, so I noticed the tensioner wasn't in perfect alignment. I used a few washers between the mount I made and the tensioner to shim it forward slightly and it popped into perfect alignment.

It looks pretty slick and the belt change is as simple as loosening the eccentric bolt, rotating the tensioner either direction and removing the belt. You re-tension it and allow for 1/4 inch deflection. Richard Clewitt said not to over tension it, or you can either put wear on the alternator bearing or the tensioner, but he said it is designed that the tensioner will fail before an alternator bearing. Replacements are pretty cheap.

You shouldn't have to fabricate anything if you are using the Rich Johnson type mount, as it has the provisions for the tensioner to bolt directly to. This is just what I had to do.

See photos.

[ClayPerrine]

Ok, here is my stab at an installation thread.

1) I am a home mechanic, not the Red Barn. Please be constructive, I am sure there are several better ways, but this is what I did and it works... at least so far.

2) You will see a red fan and a silver fan. I had to switch them in the end, for alignment purposes. I haven't figured out why yet.

3) I love the way it turned out.

Here goes nothing...:

You start by removing your pulleys from both the fan and the crank. The crank one goes on easy, and I used a new bolt that I bought with the kit from Clewitt.


The instructions say to make sure there are no burrs on your fan. This is important. It was a tight fit, I ended up doing a bit of sanding and cleaning up the fan pulley area to get the Clewitt pulley to fit on and off. It says you can use shims to make sure everything is straight.

I used my 911 cam chain straight edge that I got from Stomski Racing to line up the pulleys.

Once you know they are in alignment, you need to mount the tensioner. In my case, I had to fabricate a bracket. On the left side, the tins would be in the way on my particular engine. I used the right side mount bolt.

Note: Clewitt's tensioner is on an eccentric, so it can be tensioned from either side, it is a universal as far as that goes. It works at about any angle.

I used a beefy angle mount I had, and a piece of straight / flat bar. After measuring it up, I mig welded both sides, and ground em down a bit since I am not a super welder.

I drilled the mounting holes and mounted it up. Once it is in place, I fiddled with where I wanted it. I notched my angle mount so it would sort of catch my engine mount and lock into place to avoid any rotation due to tension. I got lucky here.

After test fitting it and tensioning it, I shortened one end and then painted it black. Clewitt pre-threads it, so I noticed the tensioner wasn't in perfect alignment. I used a few washers between the mount I made and the tensioner to shim it forward slightly and it popped into perfect alignment.

It looks pretty slick and the belt change is as simple as loosening the eccentric bolt, rotating the tensioner either direction and removing the belt. You re-tension it and allow for 1/4 inch deflection. Richard Clewitt said not to over tension it, or you can either put wear on the alternator bearing or the tensioner, but he said it is designed that the tensioner will fail before an alternator bearing. Replacements are pretty cheap.

You shouldn't have to fabricate anything if you are using the Rich Johnson type mount, as it has the provisions for the tensioner to bolt directly to. This is just what I had to do.

See photos.

The only thing I would have for a comment would be that it is better to have the tensioner on the other side of the belt. The side you have it on is under tension, and the other side is not.

Other than that, it is a great installation.

[Robarabian]

I sent the photos to Clewitt to get his opinion. I will have to look into that. My space is limited on the other side it would take a bit more "magic" to make it happen on that side. I'll play around with some ideas for sure.

Thank you for chiming in, you have done this so I trust your knowledge.

Ok, here is my stab at an installation thread.

1) I am a home mechanic, not the Red Barn. Please be constructive, I am sure there are several better ways, but this is what I did and it works... at least so far.

2) You will see a red fan and a silver fan. I had to switch them in the end, for alignment purposes. I haven't figured out why yet.

3) I love the way it turned out.

Here goes nothing...:

You start by removing your pulleys from both the fan and the crank. The crank one goes on easy, and I used a new bolt that I bought with the kit from Clewitt.


The instructions say to make sure there are no burrs on your fan. This is important. It was a tight fit, I ended up doing a bit of sanding and cleaning up the fan pulley area to get the Clewitt pulley to fit on and off. It says you can use shims to make sure everything is straight.

I used my 911 cam chain straight edge that I got from Stomski Racing to line up the pulleys.

Once you know they are in alignment, you need to mount the tensioner. In my case, I had to fabricate a bracket. On the left side, the tins would be in the way on my particular engine. I used the right side mount bolt.

Note: Clewitt's tensioner is on an eccentric, so it can be tensioned from either side, it is a universal as far as that goes. It works at about any angle.

I used a beefy angle mount I had, and a piece of straight / flat bar. After measuring it up, I mig welded both sides, and ground em down a bit since I am not a super welder.

I drilled the mounting holes and mounted it up. Once it is in place, I fiddled with where I wanted it. I notched my angle mount so it would sort of catch my engine mount and lock into place to avoid any rotation due to tension. I got lucky here.

After test fitting it and tensioning it, I shortened one end and then painted it black. Clewitt pre-threads it, so I noticed the tensioner wasn't in perfect alignment. I used a few washers between the mount I made and the tensioner to shim it forward slightly and it popped into perfect alignment.

It looks pretty slick and the belt change is as simple as loosening the eccentric bolt, rotating the tensioner either direction and removing the belt. You re-tension it and allow for 1/4 inch deflection. Richard Clewitt said not to over tension it, or you can either put wear on the alternator bearing or the tensioner, but he said it is designed that the tensioner will fail before an alternator bearing. Replacements are pretty cheap.

You shouldn't have to fabricate anything if you are using the Rich Johnson type mount, as it has the provisions for the tensioner to bolt directly to. This is just what I had to do.

See photos.

The only thing I would have for a comment would be that it is better to have the tensioner on the other side of the belt. The side you have it on is under tension, and the other side is not.

Other than that, it is a great installation.

[jim_hoyland]

Nice presentation Rob (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Cairo94507]

I think that is a significant improvement over the stock setup. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[mb911]

I would love this setup. Need to sell more oil tanks first

[Robarabian]

Ok, I got some feedback from Clewitt, and he also suggested the tensioner to not be on the "loaded" side. Back to the drawing board. Here is what I ended up doing.

I had to sort of make a staircase shaped upright. I used a similar design across it perpendicularly. It was a little thinner due to the area, so I ended up doing a tie in "down the backside of the stairs" and put a floor under the tensioner to give it less resistance to flex. There is not too much stress on the part so it is overbuilt at this point. See photos for update.

Necessity is the mother of all invention I guess. I had to notch a 1/4 x 1/4 area of the tin, but it fits nice now.

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[arbitrary]

@Robarabian how is the tensioner mount working out? Ingenious solution!

[Cairo94507]

Congratulations on getting that sorted. We installed this serpentine belt system from Clewett on my 3.6; the saddest part is you can't see how beautiful it is. Great belt system. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[Montreal914]

Curious as to what made this installation a custom one on your engine? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

Isn't the Clewett setup a bolt-on kit?

Thank you for sharing! It defnitely looks like an improvement over the stock setup. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)