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Four days into Supercharger ownership and problems..

12K views 74 replies 11 participants last post by  Toxic11 
#1 ·
So I finished up the install of an Arrington Performance / Magnuson 6lb Supercharger Kit on Saturday (late
Saturday night) Drove to work Monday and Tuesday, came home tonight went out to the gas station and
came back home and right as I was pulling into the garage I started hearing this chatter and a faint smell
of rubber. Open the hood and it sounds like a bearing is bad in the double idler pulley assembly that comes
with the Supercharger (at least I sure hope that's all it is).

I can't win... My truck is down, now my car is down.... That Tesla Model S is looking better and better....
 
#3 ·
Do you have the plastic idlers or steel?
Make sure the bolt heads/washers are not contacting the outside of the idler bearing.
If you have the plastic ones I highly recommend replacing them with steel ones.
Superchargersonline.com has them, you'll need to call them.
Do you also have the dog bone stabilizing bracket the bolts on the outside of the two pulleys?
If not call Arrington and have them send the dog bone, spacers and longer bolts.
What tensioner are you using?
I wound up putting a Thump on mine to help with some belt chirp issues.
Matter of fact I've got one for sale if you're interested, $250.00 shipped.
 
#4 ·
Has the Dogbone out of the box.

Plastic stock idlers.

Stock Tensioner.

I sent an email to Wyatt to see if he can help. It was fine one minute and started making this noise the next.. Happened as I was pulling into the garage. Checked the idler bolts they are tight.
 
#5 ·
Any play in the idler bearings?
Is the belt shredded any?
There's also a spacer that goes on the idler bracket between it and the block, some kits had no, or incorrect spacers.
Sight down the idler pulleys and see if they're square with the rest of them.
 
#6 ·
Belt is straight as an arrow. It seems like there is a little bit of side to side play in one of the idlers but
when I pulled them both off they felt smooth in my hand (stuck my finger in the center hole and spun them
on my finger). Belt isn't shredded at all.

The sound is noticeable at idle but doesn't increase with RPM. I just recorded a couple videos let me
see which one is better, upload it to my Youtube and post a link to it.
 
#11 ·
Hard to say. Something is slightly tapping/slapping something. (Obviously)
Take a small vacuum tube or screwdriver and hold it against your ear and see if you can isolate the noise.
Take a look at all of the pulleys. Is the belt in the groove on all of the pulleys?
Almost sounds like one is just slightly off.
 
#8 · (Edited)
I bet the faint smell of rubber is the belt heating up. The tick, tick, tick is every revolution of the engine according to the yellow wording on the belt. You sure it doesn't speed up with rpm's?

Sure sounds pretty close to a rod bearing before they start squealing, and spin. Loud enough too. But I can be wrong so don't get too anxious about it.

Sounds like it's on the front of the engine, though.
 
#13 ·
I'd also suggest to try an isolate the sound with a Long screwdriver placed against your ear and probe around. Next I'd also remove the SC Belt and reinstall the stock belt as if the supercharger wasn't installed to rule out that a bearing isn't going in the SC front pulley snout. Good luck and let us know where most of the noise is isolated?
 
#14 ·
I am going to try the screw driver trick but I am also going to pull the belt off and inspect the grooves and the edges and smooth side all the way around, it's just too coincidental that the noise is in perfect time
with the logo on the belt. I will keep everyone posted!
 
#15 ·
Brett,
Before you take tension from the belt get a light and look at each of the pulleys and see how the belt is tracking on them. The more I thought about it last night it sounds exactly like what my Camaro did when a belt jumped on groove while on the dyno. The belt on the AC compressor had jumped over one groove.
It's one reason why I went to an HD tensioner on both of my cars that have Maggie's.
 
#16 ·
I had the belt partially off last night and it's still making the noise. I will get down and check the crank,
AC and PS pulley it's on the waterpump and alternator and sc pulley for sure. I agree that it does
sound like it's jumping across the pulley ribs.
 
#18 ·
If it does change I can't hear it. I need to get someone to listen under the hood as I vary the RPM.

Thanks for thinking this over!
 
#21 ·
Just to let everyone know that I reached out to Wyatt at Arrington and he tried to call me twice today and emailed me to help in any way they can. I haven't had a chance to work on it any further yet, probably
won't till Friday evening but I am seeing frays in the edge of the belt (outside edge) so I'm going to say
with decent certainty something happened to the belt, it slipped or something.
 
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#22 ·
Now, I'm no expert so I will have to differ to you guys.... I think I was able to put my finger on the
problem!





I did fire the car up with the belt off even though I was 110% sure at this point... Yep click is gone! :)

So the question is now, why did it chew it up! @YLWJKT I think I will be taking you up on that
Thump Tensioner!
 
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#23 ·
Brett,
For that to be split I have to believe it ran over a pulley at one point.
Make sure once again that everything is square and there are no sharp edges.
Also, go back with a green Gates heavy duty belt.
Just take your part number and add HD to it.
Most NAPA or O'Reilly parts stores can get it for you.
If you want the tensioner shot me a pm and I'll get it shipped out tomorrow.
 
#24 · (Edited)
Toxic 11, once you find out the HD GATES FLEET Belt size/length check out my for sale thread cause I have a brand new one much cheaper than they sell for retail and it appears that your Idler Setup is off a little for that to happen to that belt so you better double check and take some measurements then give those to Wyatt to see if it's correct because those kits were very vague with regards to the shims used behind the idler bracket. ( P.S. take a look at the 3rd pic showing the Fleet Runner Green HD Belt and look how much beefier & thicker it is compared to that cheap belt they included in your kit???)
 

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#25 ·
That green belt is very thick for sure! The belt is a K061000

I am going to check everything again. The idlers looked right to me, the belt was initially riding dead center
between them, I honestly don't know how or why this happened. I put the belt on with the rad out, so if I
didn't put the belt on correctly I must be pretty dang stupid! LOL I am going to check everything with a
straight edge or a laser (actually the laser isn't a bad idea! I have a high power green one that would do
the trick).
 
#32 ·
Turns out that my buddy Gary who runs a fleet service shop had a bunch of the correct NAPA belts in
stock (Ford F250 or 350 takes the same belt) and since I always fix his PC's for free I got me free belts!

Woot! :)

So I'm back up and running and so far no issues, I found nothing wrong with any of the pulleys and
the new belt is tracking straight as can be. I guess We'll see if it lasts! :)
 
#36 ·
@Robocop1127

I checked out each pulley for burrs or dings, checked the way the belts aligned into the pulleys before
I put the belt on and then put the belt on and checked the alignment and everything looks good.

I think I am spinning the belt on the pulleys perhaps my tensioner just isn't cutting it, Wyatt said that
the stock tensioner should be able to handle a 6lb kit without issue, but in my case I don't think it can.

I am upgrading to the Thump Tensioner thanks to YLWJKT!
 
#37 · (Edited)
Brett, you might not want to hear this but when the edge of your belt is cut as in your situation, it's not due to the belt tensioner but it's caused by the IDLER pulley bracket. Ask me how I know,I've owned boosted SRT8's and have personally installed 2 Maggies on 392 Challengers and 1 Vortech and 1 Kenne Bell on SRT8's & both 392 Applications cut belts just like yours and the IDLER Pulley Bracket shims that were supplied in the Kit were all off!!! I suppose you'll find out if down the road the HD Belt shows the exact cut in the belt but let's hope not & good luck with everything & enjoy your holiday!!!
 
#39 · (Edited)
Sorry, my fault brother I meant the ider bracket. I had a 12 hr day out on the Firing Range with some new Police Recruits in this heat the past few days!!! It fried my brain,lol!!! Brett, the key here is to either add washers behind the spacers on one or both sides behind the idler bracket to bring the idlers out a little so that the belt rides directly in the middle or you might even have to grind down both spacers to bring the pulleys in a little because the belt was walking off the backside of the pulleys. You'll see what I'm describing should you locate the issue. Wish you were closer cause I'd be glad to help you out!!! Brett, lastly, was your belt cut towards the front edge facing towards the rear of the Rad or was it cut on the backside facing towards the front of the water-pump because that will give me an exact idea of what spacers will need either lengthened or reduced? (The belt generally walks towards the front or rear of the Rad which requires that you add a little washer behind both of the lower spacers to get the belt to ride more towards the middle of both idler pulleys) (On one of the 392 Installs I had to take about 0.50 off of the spacer to get the belt from riding towards the rear of the idler pulley) As I stated you never know what size spacers they're giving customers in these Magnuson kits!!!
 
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