A/C Belts

[George Des]

Hey Guys,

Anyone with a factory installed A/C and power Steering. Can you tell me what the correct routing of the drive belts for the power steering pump, fan, alternator and a/c compressor are. I'm installing a Kuhlmeister underdash unit. Have the correct bracket and understand the re-location of the alternator on the top side but can't figure out how may belts are required and how they should be routed. Right now I have one belt off the crank that drives the fan and alternator and a separate belt off a second crank pully that drives the P/S unit. I'll be using a Sanden compressor w/York adaptor in place of the piston driven York compressor and will use a parallel flow condensor instead of a tube and fin. Set up will run 134A. If anyone has a diagram or picture that would really help--George Des

[ja17]

Hello George,
The fan belt is first (closest to the engine), it is routed around the crank pulley, alternator and water pump/fan pulley. The two AC belts are next and are routed around the crank/pulley, fan/alternator pulley and belt tensioner pulley. The power steering belt is last and it is routed around the crank pulley and power steering pump pulley only.

Joe Alexander
Blacklick, Ohio

[George Des]

Joe--I'm still not clear on the belt routing. How many pulleys are there on the Crank Shaft? I believe on my current set up--a 67 230Sl that did not originally have an A/C unit installed, I only have two pulley slots on the crankshaft--one for the fan/waterpump/alt combo and another that drives the P/S pump. If a third is required, exactly how does this fit onto the crank and do you have any idea if a mod is required and where I may find one of these pulleys.  Thanks--George

[ja17]

Hello George, the later 113 cars used a six bolt FOUR belt pulley arrangement on the crankshaft. Two belts drove the AC. On the 230-SL factory or dealer installed AC was fairly rare. I cannot remember for sure if the 230-SL had a double belt driven AC Compressor also. In any case you will need at least one additional belt groove for the crankshaft and possibly longer bolts. These earlier engines also had a much weaker three bolt arrangement holding the pulleys in place. The mounting of these pulleys onto the vibration dampner must be done correctly or damage will occure to the crankshaft end if the dampner/pulley assembly comes loose. The factory shop manual goes into some detail on this problem. Anyway you need to find out if your AC compressor has one or two belt grooves and we can go from there.

Joe Alexander
Blacklick, Ohio

[George Des]

Joe--thanks for info. My compressor has a two grooove pully/clutch assembly and the carnk has only two pulleys. Any ideas on how to proceed form here?

George Des

[230SL67]

My `67 230SL has a dealer installed Kuhlmeister A/C unit and it has three pulleys on the crank.  The A/C belt is closest the engine and goes around the idler pulley to the A/C (there are 2 grooves on the compressor but only one is used, closest to the compressor). Next is the alternator belt to the high mounted alternator, then comes the P/S belt.

Chris

[George Des]

Guys--this helps--anyone know where I can get the extra crankshaft pulley for a 230SL

[ja17]

Hello George,
I have a early 60's Mercedes  220-SE coupe out back with factory A/C. The engine is nearly the same, however the A/C compressor is not buried like on all the 113's. Maybe I can take a digital photo of the set up for you this week end. Seeing the belt arrangement and pulley set up may help you.

Joe Alexander
Blacklick, Ohio