[Vwdiesel] alternator belts

[Roger Brown]

Scott Alexander wrote:
> 
> Yesterday, on the way home from work, my car ate an alternator belt.
> Now, in part, it's my fault in that it had been squealing and I'd
> figured I could get away with not tightening it for a bit longer since
> I'd gotten busy with other things.  (Since I have a/c and power steering
> on the car, I'll be paying for that misjudgment.)
> 
> Nonetheless, I replaced the alternator belt as part of all the work I
> did when I first got the car.  The new belt was chewed up (ie, missing
> chunks of rubber) at not much more that 1000 miles.  Figuring that maybe
> it was just a crappy belt, we put the original belt back on since it was
> handy and didn't show much wear.  It seems that that belt should have
> been tightened every 3-4k miles (based on the fact that I tightened once
> in the 7-8k miles since I put it back on).  On all the cars I've had
> before, tightening the alternator belt wasn't a regular maintenance
> item.
> 
> Any suggestions?

Might do some detective work and find out why the belt(s) are getting
loose.  It took a while to find the cause on my '81 w/ A/C.  Was sheared
off bolts at the base of the A/C compressor bracket.  Fixed that for
good after the dealer's half-a**ed repair lasted a few months:
	http://www.4crawler.com/Diesel/CheapTricks/index.shtml#ACbracket

-- 
   Roger