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Why two power steering belts?

Started by Jed, 14 March 2020, 12:56 PM

Jed

Hey

Stupid question??

Why are there two belts on the power steering pump? Just redundancy/safety issue?

Is this common practice?

thanks

jed
1979 Mercedes 6.9 #5206 - restored
1979 Mercedes 6.9 #6424 - ongoing restoration
1976 Mercedes 6.9 #484 - restoration?

daantjie

I've also pondered this one.  Maybe for a more balanced drive on the pully?  But yes I agree probably just for redundancy.
Daniel
1977 450 SEL 6.9 - Astralsilber

adamb

No idea why 2 but they do last forever which is a great thing.

TJ 450

My thoughts have always been redundancy but perhaps the maximum load might also exceed that of one belt?

Tim
1976 450SEL 6.9 1432
1969 300SEL 6.3 1394
2003 ML500

floyd111

My money would be on a team of over-engineers, the likes that longer seem to be able to find employment in these plastic days. They could have built a wider, single belt, so it's not a strength-per-belt thing. I think there are two of them, each capable of this load. Having 2 of them functions as a fail-safe secondary system, but it also alleviates wear and tear to a point where they barely ever need changing.

UTn_boy

I'm with Stan on this in regard to the fail safe aspect.  These belts are the ones that turn the water pump.  So if one broke you'd still have cooling abilities with just one belt until both were replaced. 
1966 250se coupe`,black/dark green leather
1970 600 midnight blue/parchment leather
1971 300sel 6.3,papyrus white/dark red leather
1975 450se, pine green metallic/green leather
1973 300sel 4.5,silver blue metallic/blue leather
1979 450sel 516 red/bamboo