Has anyone replaced a fan belt with a link belt?

[aczlan]

Dad's old Massey Ferguson Industrial 35 had one of those, the reason was that there was a drive shaft that went from the crankshaft pulley out to the front hydraulic pump and as such it was not physically possible to put a belt on from the fan, alternator and power steering pump. It worked well, I don't remember there ever being any issues with it in that situation.

Aaron Z

 

[Mace Canute]

My dads B7100 broke the fan belt and replacing it with a regular belt will require pulling the hood, radiator, whatever else is in the way and likely hauling 70 miles home since there aren稚 many tools on site. A link belt could be put together after its snaked through and avoid all that. Anyone seen a problem?View attachment 570322

It should work as long as you get the right belt size and install it in the right direction.

Link Belting for Power Transmission | Fenner Drives

 

[Turbys_1700]

From my limited understanding linked belts take out vibration and supposedly run smoother in applications using worn pulleys. It makes sense when you look at the construction of the links.

 

[PILOON]

Those belts are used all the time on table saws and other woodworking tools.
One big advantage is that they reduce vibration.

 

[Bob Rooks]

I put one on my Yuchai dozer when I switched to a bigger alternator. That was in 2007 and 500 hours ago.

 

[SandburRanch]

Link is mighty handy on a belt driven shop made grinder when the shaft would need to be pressed from the casting and bearings to replace the belt . Grinder made in 1959 , original V belt was replaced with link belt in approx. 1998 after wearing 3 sets of stones to a nubbin . I like the link belt for those reasons so i put one on my table saws . Of course those links may not last that long but i'll be pushing daises when they fail .

 

[Cougsfan]

At the factories I used to work at we always had link belts on hand for emergency replacement at the few places where v belts were time consuming to install or we didn't have the right belt in inventory. We wouldn't use them on high torque applications, or if belt replacement was easy. Where we did install them we would replace them with v-belts at the next available downtime. They do work well on intermittent use applications but are not all that reliable for continuous (24/7) use. If vibration of a belt is an issue, then you have other problems that the link belt might indeed mask. They do have some advantages, but personally, I wouldn't put one on my tractor or anywhere else unless it was an emergency. At the same time I wouldn't criticize anyone who chose to do so. On a shop tool where it may get used a couple hours a week, they would probably last quite a while.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

Link belts work fine. I would not hesitate to use it. Yes I use them.

 

[Bob Rooks]

I think the reason that some have failed early on is that they were not installed correctly. The link tails on the underside of the belt should be trailing in the direction of rotation. I know, some of you already knew that.