Need help keeping motor drive belt in place on Inca 570 Jointer/Planer

[Ron Kanter]

While cleaning up my newly acquired 570 J/P, I discovered that the feed drive belt was shredded and strands of the belt were all over the gears.

I pulled the motor cleaned everything and lubed the gears. Took me a while to find the needle bearings, duh, and then regreased them.
Loosely connected the motor and replaced the drive belt, tightened the motor to the jointer/planer body.

The cutterhead drive belt now "walks" off the upper pulley toward the j/p. It rides over the ridge on the inside edge of the pulley while moving toward the body of the machine.

Anyone know how to keep the motor drive pulley from walking? Does it have something to do with the way the three bolts that hold the motor to the machined are tightened?

I am eager to actually use the 570, so any help would be much appreciated.
Ron

[Callan Campbell]

Well, any belt that is able to 'walk' that easily is usually not in plane or alignment on all pulleys. Check with a straight edge of some type, even a decent piece of cut wood, to see if any of the pulleys are not where they should be. Could be a simple loosening of a pulley set screw to tap things back into line. Maybe take a picture for us with a straight edge being held on the pulleys/belt so that someone who's worked with this model Inca can elaborate better.

[John TenEyck]

I've changed the belt on my Inca once now in the 25 years I've owned it. No problems. The only thing I can think of beyond what the prior poster recommended is to make sure the new belt you put on is not "tapered". I hope you get it sorted out and predict you will love your new Inca once you get to using it. It's a great machine.

[John TenEyck]

Here's a photo of mine. The belt is set on the low speed setting. You must be using the high speed setting (belt on large diameter of cutterhead pulley) if it's walking inboard. I've never had mine on the high speed setting, so I don't know if it would tend to walk in that position. Actually, I don't see any reason to run in the high speed position, but can imagine I might have problems feeding a heavy cut since the machine only has a 1.5 HP motor. You might try putting your belt in the low speed position and see if it tracks OK. Just a thought. Hope this helps.

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[Lee Schierer]

I'm not familiar with your machine, but belt walking is a function of alignment. I suspect your previous belt failure was related to teh pulley issue. If the shaft for eiter pulley is tilted one way or the other the belt will tend to walk. Also if the pulleys are domed, the belt will tend to walk if the centers are not aligned between the two pullies. In the photo provided by John, there appears to be an idler pully applying tension. If that pulley is crooked it will also push the belt off the other two. Check the mounting of that idler pulley and insure it is secure and moving correctly in relation to the other two.

[Ron Kanter]

Thanks guys.
Talked to Jesse at Eagle Tools. It was an alignment problem.
Solved it by adding a washer to each of the two lower motor mounting bolt so that the side of the pulley that was in the opposite direction of the walk was raised. Amazing how a little change makes such a big difference.
Thanks again for the suggestions and the support.
Ron