difficulty adjusting idler pully eccentric bushing

[HopefulSSer]

Is that standards-compliant HTML? ;-)

I replaced the Gilmer belt on my Greenie recently. The instructions are to tighten the eccentric until the Gilmer belt gets noisy, then back off just til it quiets down. It is indeed the Gilmer belt that makes noise (you can't adjust the tension of the v-belt -- that's determined by the strength of the sheave spring).

[timsch]

Thanks for the correction.

Did you use anything other than just a screwdriver to adjust the bushing? Can you describe "noisy"?

I wonder what's the result of not doing final tensioning?

[HopefulSSer]

I wouldn't know how to describe it but it's obvious when it happens. I just used a screwdriver -- mine was not difficult to move so a small screwdriver was sufficient. If you were to overtighten the belt then it would put unnecessary load on the bearings and no doubt lead to early failure. In addition to it being noisy. ;-) If it were undertightened I don't know what would happen exactly but I would suspect it would be more liable to jump teeth and might flap a bit which would eventually pound the bearings.

EDIT: I will add I had had mine all apart for cleaning & inspection so perhaps that's why mine moved more easily that yours seems to. You might try cleaning the outer diameter of the bearing with some very fine paper to remove any rust, and make sure the bore it goes into is also clean. Mine is also a bit newer than yours so it doesn't use the clips but rather a pointed grub screw to hold the bearing in alignment. I doubt that would make a difference, but maybe it does?