[Vwdiesel] TD eats alternator belts

[LBaird119 at aol.com]

  I had problems with mine.  Conti-tech belts lasted longer, even tried an 
11mm 
belt, which did better but not good enough.  So it was time to FIX the 
problem.  
On mine, the problem was the tensioner was out of alignment.  At first I 
thought it was just cocked.  A little tweaking on the bracket it mounts to, 
helped a little but set it further out of align!  I found most of the cocking 
was 
from the bearing being worn.  A new tensioner with bearing is over $50!  A 
new bearing from the local bearing shop was about $6.  :)  A new alt pulley 
ain't cheap either!  With the slightest result from tweaking and the new 
bearing I could see the tensioner was now fairly straight but it sat too far 
outboard.  I ground down the post it sits on.  There is a shoulder at the 
base of the post.  It's probably about 7 or 8mm high (the shoulder). I 
ended up grinding all or most of that shoulder off (from the base UP TO 
that, so 6 to 8mm ground off of the total height of the post.)  It 
brought it into really nice alignment and I haven't lost a belt in nearly 
10K miles!  :)
     Loren