Fellow NAMers,

I recently changed my pulley tensioner assembly.....AGAIN. I would hate to do this job again and take the full assembly out, if the only known part to fail on these things are the small hydraulic dampeners (the little shock absorber). I've sourced out who makes them, the company's name is Stabilus.

If I find out how to get a hold of these hydraulic dampeners, who would be interested? I will be posting more information along with my research.

If you already know how to get a hold of these little failing bastards, please feel free to share.

Thanks!

 

There have been many attempts to get that Stab-O-shoc 5754PR separately at lower the cost of an $80 Gates assembly. All in vain as that part costs $156.95. Just buy the Gates & extract the damper like many of us do.

Google: "Now I know why tensioner stops break....."
The quote is on page 5 of that thread this site won't allow linking.

Good luck! You might be the Arthur this Excalibur has been waiting for.

 

Thanks! For some reason the numbering I saw in mine was STAB-O-SHOC GD15SP. Who knows ? I contacted them through email to see how much they woulkd ask for it. I will look at my unit this evening again and make sure that the numbering is correct. If so, it might be a raplecement unit for the 5754PR.

The are many ways to Rome, the best way to get there is asking.

There's many things that can be done to our cars that would make them so insanely efficient and reliable.

This is a list I think would help:

1. Radiator Fan diode Mod (permanent)
2. Power Steering delete kit (on the works)
3. ATI Damper (Very solid design, and almost permanent...at least until the car decides to kick the bucket)
4. Oil Catch cans
5. Detroit Tuned Bypass

6. Fianding a damn supplier willing to sell us the belt tensioner dampener for a lower cost than the whole belt tensioner unit. I would save them a lot of manufacturing time and money.

Doing these mods are very essential to keeping a healthy r53 engine. And constant oil changes.


5. Last but not least...find a damn supplier willing to sell the tensioner unit dampeners individually

 

Seems like you & I must come from the same tribe in our past lives.
I've been onto quite a few experiments aside from working w/ Condor on that PS Delete Kit. The tensioner damper delete coupled w/ a Stretch Fit belt will eliminate the tensioner altogether, but finding that belt in our size had led to so many dead ends....for now. I wish you luck. Please post up once there's anything positive.
Thanks!!!!

 

Response:

"Dear Mr. Pimentel,

Thank you for your recent e-mail regarding Stabilus products. In order to better assist you with your request, please provide the Stabilus part number. Stabilus part numbers are either six digits or four digits and two letters. Also please provide your location (city and state).

Best regards,

Mircho Vodenicharski
Sales Support Stabilus,
Inc.1201 Tulip DriveGastonia,
NC 28052, U.S.A.
www.stabilus.com "


I'll keep all posted

 

Great! If Stabilus should decide to sell em separately cheap, it's something to jump on. Good luck, Manny.

 

***** outta luck.... This is the response I got from the Stabilus people...after trying to reach them 3 times.


"Manuel,
we are a distributor for Stabilus and they have asked us to contact you on part number 5754PR, This is made in Germany and lead time is 4-6 weeks, pricing is:


1 piece $196.65 each
25 pieces $176.95 each
50 pieces $157.30 each


Thanks

Mike
Orr & Orr Inc
7301 S. Meade Ave
Bedford Park IL 60638
708-496-9800


On Fri, Jun 20, 2014 at 9:12 AM, Hank Hines <hank@orrorr.com> wrote:


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Info (STUS) <info@stabilus.com>
Date: Fri, Jun 20, 2014 at 6:41 AM
Subject: RFQ for Stabilus Material 5754PR
To: Hank Hines <hank@orrorr.com>


Hank,



Please contact below individual and assist with price and delivery.



Note: Part made in Germany.

Best regards,

Mircho Vodenicharski
Sales Support

Stabilus, Inc.
1201 Tulip Drive
Gastonia, NC 28052, U.S.A.

www.stabilus.com"







That is some ridiculous pricing. Doesn't even make any sense. But yes people, I tried. The fix is to get the stupid Gates replacement.

Sorry I wasn't the Thor to your thunder!

 

Even if and when someone finds this little damper, what about the spring and roller? It seems the easiest solution is to bin the entire thing and buy a new one for $80. Too many people trying to reinvent the wheel.

 

OK! understood.

But I slightly disagree with you. The reason behind this thread is that I'm trying to help people like you and me not let dealers and retailers take advantage of us with the prices they put on these things. And for another reason, I don't like being part of a herd of cows buying whatever is put on the market..... just because.

Does it even make sense to you that one damper costs $180 and the replacement belt tension unit costs around $85? Not for me. Even though it doesn't seem to work out in this specific situation, it has proven to work for other things for our cars. Save's us money and some time for those who are willing to research a bit.

If your pockets are full of gold, by all means go ahead and let the dealers take care of your car.


And, btw, I hardly doubt the roller and the spring ever giving out....the belt will, because it stretches, thus the reason for the spring(to keep tension).

By all means, I'm trying to help and not re-invent the wheel.

Peace!

 

I’m pretty sure Gates buys these things by the thousands in incremental shots. My guess is that Gates is done for a while and has no need to place an order for more dampeners. I’m guessing this is why you’ve been given the high price, that and maybe this dampener has no other applications. I don’t think most shoppers have a concept of machine setup time etc. Not to forget the economies of scale.

There’s also the professional service side of things. I don’t know very many good techs that would bother changing one part on such a cheap component. The rest of the service life is unknown. They could install a new dampener and the roller could **** the bed a month later. It really does not make for a good customer service experience.

IMO $80 is cheap and I know I'll have good service life well maybe it will last 60k I'm more surprised that people are not more wild about single supercharger parts.

 

Appreciate the effort, Manny. Many of us have tried looking for that Stab-O-Shoc cheaper than the Gates to no avail. Even went as far as using the Alta manually adjustable tensioner which is ideally paired w/ a Stretch-Fit belt (none available, so far). It eventually broke the front cast where the damper is held.
Look at the right side of this Alta pic, it has the broken part of the assembly:


And yes, the tensioner pulley bearing wears & would eventually rattle. The spring weakens, too. How I know? Mine did. As I swapped a new Litens/Gates in, the rattle was gone & the spring tension was higher as it needed more effort w/ the tensioner tool.
Til I find a stretch fit belt of our size, I'll stick w/ the Gates w/c I've on w/ a custom stainless plate stop. Don't get the cable or the Alta cause they break if the damper isn't working anymore. The WMW plate type stop should fare better.
Here's my buddy's failed Alta due to a bad damper:

 

I guess this thread can be closed. Sorry guys, I tried.

 

Two failed Alta parts in the same post....hmmm.....both different....ouch!!
Just shows if the OEM/gates goes 80,000 miles for $80....how good of a deal it really is!!

 

Yeah, my Alta tensioner stop thing failed ...... paired with the urethane powerflex inserts ...and also failed.....bought the WMW inserts paired with the WMW tensioner and also failed(one of the inserts basically melted), and therefore my WMW tensioner stop broke too.


So, after all these tries...I say FFF it and I won't even put a tensioner stop and keep everything OEM and an eye on it.

That's the reason I wanted extra dampers, to change every 15-20k miles.

 

Stops fail, that's why we customized beefier stainless ones w/ brass spacer inserts to allow free damper movement.

 

That is the same stopper I had from WMW, combined with the solid plastic WMW damper inserts. When one of the inserts melted....or vibrated itself to death...one of the screws became lose and eventually fell and with it the little sliding brass spacer.

I decided to not put any of these stoppers when I installed the new tensioner unit. :(

 

I've had the Alta piece for a while now with zero problems. I would suspect that the casting on the tensioner was poor or that the bolt was over torqued causing stress on the aluminum boss of that tensioner.

 

I can assure you it wasn't over torqued, slo. The tensioner casting failure may be a random anomaly, but I'm not going back til I find a Stretch-Fit belt of our size.
Manny, How thick are Way's? In stainless, too? Got the measurements off the failed Alta slotted plate stop. And the custom 1s come fitted brass bush spacer inserts on the slots to make sure the damper is free to move & won't subject unecessary stresses on the stop.
If your damper is dead, too much vibration would cause the stop & the damper's bushes to fail.

 

It had to have been a casting fault then. I really don't see another way.

If you want to build you're own, you can always use two ring eye lugs and a cable in between. If it's strong enough for logging cable and winch use, it's strong enough for the tensioner. Someone already makes one similar.

 

Seen many cable ones fail, hence the inception of the plate type.