[Vwdiesel] alternator belts

[Doyt W. Echelberger]

I just replaced two broken-off bolts that secured the air conditioner 
compressor on my 85 Jetta TD.  They had lurked there for two years, making 
the system of pullies unstable, and trashing at least 4 belts.


Doyt

 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
At 07:46 AM 11/18/2004 -0700, you wrote:
>I tend to follow Roger's reasoning.  I bet that something in the lash-up
>is getting loose allowing the belt to loosen.  I doubt that it is the
>belt.
>
>Chuck Carnohan
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com [mailto:vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com]
>On Behalf Of Roger Brown
>Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2004 11:48 PM
>
>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