Weird compressor belt issue

[Waxman]

I bought a new FS curtis air compressor a little while back for my detail shop. The belt broke a couple days ago so I put a new one on. I didn't notice right away that the motor pulley and the pump pulley were not properly aligned, so the belt wound up twisting itself as it ran. The compressor seemed to build pressure fine with the belt this way. I took the belt back off and was surprised how far out of alignment the two pulleys were. I unbolted the motor and used a different set of holes in the base plate. This got the motor pulley out a lot closer to the alignment of the pump pulley. But it still wound up twisting the belt as it ran.

today I took another shot at fixing it and wound up removing the motor pulley from the shaft and putting it on backwards from the way it was originally. This changed the offset so that the motor pulley was almost exactly lined up with the pump pulley. I used a straight edge and it's pretty close to perfect.

i'll run it for a while like this and see if the belt stays true. I'm just surprised that this new compressor, which was not a cheapie, was assembled and shipped this way. What's up with that?

 

[Randy]

Sounds to me that someone wasn't paying attention to what they were doing when they put the pulley on the motor and the whoever inspected it before it went out the door didn't know what they were looking at. It's one of those things that make me want to pull my hair out.

 

[soonermajic]

I had a 35 yr old Curtis that just runs. Thing is built like a tank! Most newer stuff like compressors & deep freezers, aren't near as good of quality.
I know...you're saying DUH

 

[Mr. Clean]

I bought a new FS curtis air compressor a little while back for my detail shop. The belt broke a couple days ago so I put a new one on. I didn't notice right away that the motor pulley and the pump pulley were not properly aligned, so the belt wound up twisting itself as it ran. The compressor seemed to build pressure fine with the belt this way. I took the belt back off and was surprised how far out of alignment the two pulleys were. I unbolted the motor and used a different set of holes in the base plate. This got the motor pulley out a lot closer to the alignment of the pump pulley. But it still wound up twisting the belt as it ran.

today I took another shot at fixing it and wound up removing the motor pulley from the shaft and putting it on backwards from the way it was originally. This changed the offset so that the motor pulley was almost exactly lined up with the pump pulley. I used a straight edge and it's pretty close to perfect.

i'll run it for a while like this and see if the belt stays true. I'm just surprised that this new compressor, which was not a cheapie, was assembled and shipped this way. What's up with that?

CHILD LABOR!