Are you aware that your auto motive’s engine bay contains so many unsung heroes? One significant among them is the drive belts. It is just not possible for your automotive engine to run properly without these drive belts. Because what happens when these fail is that your power steering gets almost locked as the power steering pump fails to be turned or worse still, your warning lights begin to flash due to the alternator failing to be turned.
Role of Drive Belts
The significant role played by your drive belts is to ‘drive’ your engine’s accessories. Accessories include the power steering pump and the alternator mentioned above. The compressor of your vehicle’s air conditioner is breathed life into by the drive belts and sometimes your water pump and the cooling fan also come alive because of the drive belts. In short, all these accessories are fired to a start by turning force of the vehicle’s engine through some or the other belt. Drive belts thus play a crucial role in almost all secondary engine systems.
Drive Belts- Several Kinds
The most commonly used belts in motorcycles and automobiles are the V-belts, serpentine belts and the toothed V-belts.
The serpentine belt is named such because of their long length and their snake-like routing through the accessories. Being flat on one side and ribbed on the other ensures that the belt remains in place securely. This belt powers the maximum of your automobile’s accessories. The V-belt is named such because of the resemblance of its cross section to the alphabet ‘V’. This is useful to power the air conditioning compressor of your automobile. However, in case of powerful vehicles, more than one of these may be used. The toothed V-belt is useful in applications which call for high torque. Motorcycles and powerful engines find these suitable. The teeth of this belt go snugly into the grooves of a toothed pulley. Pulley is a component which enables the belt to move to a different direction for routing another accessory. Pulleys are responsible for maintaining the tension or tightness and avoid slippage of the belt as it turns an accessory. Along with maintenance of belts, the pulleys also need to be maintained properly.
Checking for Failure
All belts fail after a passage of time and the engine’s heat usually hastens the process. Checking the condition of the belts at regular intervals is a must. In case of serpentine belts, you can check if some chunks of rubber are missing and the belt ribs do not have any gaps between them. As for the V-belts, the side walls have to be paid attention to. They should not be glazed or shiny. If they are then it is an indication of slippage of the belt. Faulty pulleys can also be the reason of failure of the belts. It should be ensured that there is no wobbling or leakage of grease from them. They should function smoothly.
Summarizing
Just as drive belts are indispensable to an automobile’s engine likewise universal beams, carbon steel fittings and carbon steel pipe fittings are the most important items needed for any construction project. Therefore, these components have to be of good quality and need to be checked for from time to time so that the application for which they are used works fine for a long time.