indesit w123 cam belt problem

The cam belt keeps coming off half way through the cycle. Having witnessed it coming off once it came off at the drum end not the motor end. I took the cam belt to a shop to get a new one supposing it was stretched but apparently not. It is really taught (i.e. so so much so it is difficult to put it back on) and it is only 2 years old. Does anyone have any suggestions please?

I have not worked on this model but generally a belt will come off if the drum bearings are worn. If while the belt is off you can feel movement by moving the pulley wheel side to side or top to bottom this will be the reason why your belt is dislodging, because as the drum fills and gets heavy the drum will tilt down slightly ( if the bearings are worn) knocking the pulley wheel from the verticle alignment. Secondly to fit a new belt locate the belt first over the motor pulley then locate it as much as you can over the drum pulley wheel then at the point were the belt will not go any further around the pulley, wrap a small cable tie around the pully wheel and belt tie it tightly. Turn the drum slowly from the inside of the machine and the belt will then fully locate onto the drum pulley wheel. hope this is of some help

I've had another look at it and given the pulley wheel a bit of a pull but it is not moving independantly of the whole drum- the drum and pulley move together as a unit and i dont think that was what you meant? I've also tried tightening the motor unit to the drum but there was no slack. Is there anything else you can think of?

No the pulley and the drum will always be solid providing the pulley nut is tight. The shaft of the inner drum fits through the outer tub and the bearings are a tight circular collar around the shaft at that point seated in the outer tub (cannot be seen hidden by centre of pulley wheel). If the bearings are worn then you would feel movement around this area.however it sounds like there is no slack at all on the pulley. The only other posibility is that the when belt is fitted to the motor shaft it has to fitted a couple of grooves in to align correctley with the drum pulley wheel. You have checked the motor end and everything is tight there so after that Im afraid I would be scratching the old noggin.

ok, thanks for your time anyway,

Lou

I had exactly the same problem as yourself but what i found was that after a certain amount of time the belt seemed to stretch ever so slightly on the one side meening that it would eventually work its way of the drum pulley ( i too didn't think the belt looked too bad but it was only a subtle stretch) . In the end i bought a new belt and once fitted making sure it is on the correct motor pulley grooves as mentioned before there was no problem