Cog belt pulley for a Direct Drive clutch

[AshleyMckendree]

I have always loathed the shortcomings of the butler style direct drive system because of its need for V/serpentine belts that slip when under load and eventually wear away to nothing then snap at the worst possible time.

What i have wanted to do for years is find a way to change the pulley to a "Cog/Gear belt" system like what is used on fancy supercharger systems for maxumum torque and zero slippage.

Here is a primitive drawing i made in paint of my idea.

doing this would require a gear cog belt pulley somehow bolted to the front of the engines main drive pulley.

This would make it a completely independant belt for the pto system.


...What are your thoughts?

 

[TimP]

I think the problem with doing that on the clutch side is that the rest of the pullys are smooth. I believe the belt has multiple grooves or rows in it.


However when it comes to the blower it makes sense.....and in fact the HM CDS's belt is cogged.


I was actually looking into what people had said about the Powerclean Genesis machines and there were some complaints about belts. It seems to me it wouldn't cost much more to put stainless chain drives on the blowers and you probably wouldn't ever have a problem with your belt. And it definitely wouldn't be the weak link in your system.

 

[AshleyMckendree]

However when it comes to the blower it makes sense.....and in fact the HM CDS's belt is cogged.

.

Just there blower belt or the belt that drives the clutch?

 

[TimP]

the belt that drives the blower is cogged. The belt for the clutch is in the engine bay, serpentine belt. And the belt for the cat pump is a regular belt.

 

[TimP]

You probably can....but you're going to have to change all the pulleys in your van motor to work with the new belt. That's the only problem I see with it.

 

[AshleyMckendree]

Can't you get warner clutches w/ cogs?

I just looked them up, they list timing belt pulleys on there parts search and is kinda vauge.
But its a start! thanks for the tip.

 

[Rex Tyus]

Just one thought, it is better to burn up a belt than a clutch. Again just a thought.

 

[John Watson]

5 years ago my shaft drive unit "JEM" was reinstalled into another van, The shaft had to be swapped from the left to the right side due to the engine I had in the van. While doing it, the clutch pulley was changed to a serpintine from a 2 industrial belt pulley. The unit was set back 3-4 inches than the previous mount and the extra pulley mounted out from the harmonic balancer was deleted.

Now my whole system is driven by the single serpintine belt in the engine compartment including the air conditioning. Not a bit of problems running the cleaning unit at 2200 RPM's

The blower still is run off the shaft with 2 belts, the clutch on the pump runs off a 3rd belt from the blower.

 

[Jimbo]

Hey Ashley...back about 10 years ago HM was private labeling a machine for BP...it was a 2 cyl aircooled engine...with a cogged belt setup...it basically vibrated itself apart...might have been the timing differences between impulses of the blower and the engine...amplified by the cogged belt.

The challenge might be lessened by the 8 cylinders in the van. I think if you could end up with 2 conventional belts on the pto drive system it might be a better solution.- Jim

 

[John Watson]

The challenge might be lessened by the 8 cylinders in the van. I think if you could end up with 2 conventional belts on the pto drive system it might be a better solution.- Jim

Hey Jim, We used to have a humm and after we changed the twin belts it would go away for about a week of use then the belts would squeek and humm again. Every 6 months or so we would have to make sure the belts were retightened and change every year due to streching.

After replacing with the serpintine, using the existing self adjusting and tensioning system, we have not heard a squeek or humm, had any extra vibrations, adjusted the belt or replaced the belt. In a knut shell, it has preformed perfect. I was under the understanding that the other shaft drive makers were shifting to the single serpintinr set up also. I just haven't checked for years..

Just my oppinion after running both type for over 5 yrs each

 

[gasaxe]

i questioned a sales guy with a major roots dealer about running a cogged belt system on a unit i was building and he so major no. He said that the pulses from the cogs on the belt were extremly hard on drive end berings. Not sure if he was f.o.s. or not. didnt make sense to me that a corded rubber belt would cause major wear on steel. I do know there are alot of racing performance aplications that use cog belts.