This image came across in my FB feed. It’s a turnbuckle between the engine block and the alternator.
Is there anything wrong with this setup?
Turnbuckle is acting in compression, which is not how they are generally used, but I don’t see anything particularly dangerous about this hack.
I would expect there was a bracket there originally. So it’s probably the wrong part but it might work just as well. The eyebolt eye diameter may be larger than the mounting bolts. Without some kind of bushing they might be loose on the bolts which then aren’t acting in shear.
Vibration would be my concern. Especially if the turnbuckle is hard mounted. Those lock nuts on the turnbuckle are not designed to cope with vibration, and will likely loosen after not a long time. Hard to get adequate tension into the threads to cope with vibration. The usual answer is to add a wire through the middle and around an end to mitigate loosening. Not ideal, but will help.
Safety wire.
My MG’s generator has a bracket at the bottom. To tension or change the belt, I it takes three hands – which I don’t have. That’s why I carry a small crowbar in the boot, so it can lift and hold the generator while I’m using my hands to tighten bolts. Now that I think of it, the turnbuckle wood indeed be acting in compression. And being on the bottom, it wouldn’t be an ideal solution for me.
Doing belt tensioning on a traditional pre-serpentine GM small block is the same, although the arrangement is much more ergonomic than on a MG. Working from above, it’s one hand on a crowbar (or very long stout screwdriver) to lever the alternator away from the block until the belt tension is about right, then another hand on a ratchet to run the clamp bolt down tight on the arc-shaped rail it rides in. Lather rinse repeat until you get the belt tension right enough. Finally, remove the crowbar/screwdriver and use two hands to run the pivot bolt & nut down tight too.
Ahh, memories. Lost some skin off the back of my hand more than once on that operation.
There’s a bracket like others have said- you loosen that bolt, push the alternator along the arc that the bracket lets it describe in order to get the belt properly tightened. Then you just tighten the bolt and you’re in business.
Unless of course, you look down while driving down the highway in the middle of nowhere and notice that while the engine is running fine, your ammeter is reading all wonky and your voltmeter is steady at about 13 volts. Turned out my bolt had vibrated loose and I was running without an alternator for a little while. Luckily I had a crescent wrench and could just re-tighten that belt and crank that bolt down good and tight.
Here’s most of my tool kit.
There’s also a ball-peen hammer, a short crowbar, a knock-off hammer, and a plywood knock-off ‘wrench’. Strangely, no crescent wrench.
Is that belt inside out?
Correction: There are three crescent wrenches in the kit. They’re there in the picture, but I forgot they were there.
I was looking at what was between the two pliers and thinking aren’t those crescent wrenches?
So, it isn’t just me.
… like in the pic, that bracket is completely missing and they’ve substituted a turnbuckle for it.
Yep. Cerebral flatulence.
But is it a metric or inches crescent wrench?
(sorry, old joke…)
I can’t even remember if they’re right-handed or left-handed.
The adjustment screw on left handed crescent wrenches is reverse threaded. Telling the difference between left and right handed screwdrivers is the real challenge.
Hold it in front of you. If the pointy end is pointing away from you, it’s right handed. If it’s pointing towards you, it’s left handed. But you don’t need to be concerned, I can show you one weird trick to convert screwdrivers from right to left handed in the field.
Walk around to the other side of the screwdriver?
Related life hack: Don’t just throw away the nails that are pointed the wrong way. You can use them for the other side of the house.