Delta 18-900L problem...
#11
The other day while working on a project I realized I wasn't getting any torque from my drill press. A quick look under the hood showed me that one of the belts had basically come apart. I received the new belts the other day and installed them this afternoon. There was something amiss, though, as I noticed that the tensioner wasn't really tensioning very well...

I did a little looking and discovered that the motor had "moved" a bit, and was too close to the idler pulley. I loosened the bolts - which seemed neither tight nor loose - and slid the retaining plate as far back as it would go and retightened the bolts. It made no difference, the belts were still not tensioned properly. In fact, the tensioner handle was sitting close the end of travel while in the "tensioned" position instead of running in "about" the middle, as you can see in the pictures below:





So, has anyone else had this problem? In looking at it, the tensioner assembly position is not adjustable, so I'm wondering if there could be a problem with the tensioner, itself. It really appears that If I could just move the motor back farther I could fix the problem...

Oh, and both belts are the same size, and match the originals.

Thanks for the help!
Dave
"One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyrany, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways."
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#12
shorter motor belt?

that would be the simple fix or maybe a link belt just to see if it made a difference. then back to a shorter belt if it worked

Joe
Let us not seek the Republican Answer , or the Democratic answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future  John F. Kennedy 



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#13
While a shorter motor belt would probably work and assuming those are the correct belts, I would still be a bit troubled by Delta's design.
A retirement dedicated to fine woodworking and bad golf.
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#14
3finger said:


While a shorter motor belt would probably work and assuming those are the correct belts, I would still be a bit troubled by Delta's design.




While I agree that the design is likely the issue there is not too much one can do about that at this juncture other than attempt a fix on your own.
Let us not seek the Republican Answer , or the Democratic answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future  John F. Kennedy 



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#15
I'm just wondering....on my older Delta, the belts were different lengths. But the manual showed only one part number (and a quantity of 2). So, maybe the belts were not the same (the motor belt should be shorter) but you couldn't compare since one was destroyed. Maybe someone with an 18-900 could confirm the lengths for you. On mine, when I replaced the belts with 2 of equal length, the motor didn't slide back far enough on a couple of the speeds (no idler pulley).
I started with absolutely nothing. Now, thanks to years of hard work, careful planning, and perseverance, I find I still have most of it left.
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#16
I took my belts off and confirmed that they are the same size. The motor mount is adjusted all the way in (from the factory), as, apparently, was yours originally. YOu might try returning the motor to its original position...it's possible the belt is over-stretched with the motor all the way out, causing the problem.

I don't know if it helps, but the part number on my belts is 4PJ710.
Bob
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#17
JGrout said:


[blockquote]3finger said:


While a shorter motor belt would probably work and assuming those are the correct belts, I would still be a bit troubled by Delta's design.




While I agree that the design is likely the issue there is not too much one can do about that at this juncture other than attempt a fix on your own.


[/blockquote]
I probably could have expressed it better. I wasn't faulting your solution at all. Indeed, it is probably his only recourse. I was faulting Delta for making it necessary in the first place.
A retirement dedicated to fine woodworking and bad golf.
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#18
Thanks, guys!

I considered a shorter belt, but just wanted to make sure I had tried everything else first.

As for trying a link belt, that won't really work as the OEM belts have multiple grooves on the inside - like a serpentine belt on your car. I may be able to use it for sizing purposes, though...

What makes me cranky is that I know the tensioning handle would ride right about mid-travel up until this happened. So I know there has to have been something that changed.

Thanks again!
Dave
"One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyrany, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways."
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#19
Is everything in the correct position- the position it was in before the belt broke?

Is it possible that the intermediate idler pulley arm should be in the 4 o'clock or 5 o'clock position instead of the 2 o'clock position?
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#20
Here is a picture of my DP for comparison. The one thing I note is the position of the plate underneath the spindle and tensioner. The slots for the machine screws that hold that plate in place are almost fully exposed to the left of the screw heads on my DP and they are hardly visible on yours.

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I think there has been some movement and that has caused a loss of proper separation between the drive pulley and the transfer pulley resulting in loss of tension. Perhaps moving that plate so the slots appear closer to what I see would do the trick. (I have no idea what that plate does or whether moving it would help, it's just the only thing I see.)
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