No room left to tighten alternator...

[irdave]

Hola amigos.

 

So I've been working on the beast and now it's alive enough I've been driving around town- and have burned about 10 gallons of gas... Which is fun, but the damned belt squeaks, a lot.

 

I'm literally at the end of the adjustment on the bracket- I had a large persuasion device wedged in to help make it as tight as possible- and it's just bottomed out.  It's a brand new belt from I.E., and the old belt fit exactly the same.  The alternator has, at a minimum, been out of the car.  I don't know if it is the stock alternator and has just been serviced or if it is a different alternator...  My knee jerk feeling is that it's the 'wrong' alternator.  So I either need a shorter belt (but I hear the profile is special) or a different alternator...

 

Thoughts?

[esty]

buy a smaller belt

[BarneyT]

Pictures of alternater would help, but it sounds like you have it sorted out...

[irdave]

48 minutes ago, esty said:

buy a smaller belt

Is it just a regular V belt?  Shorter belt is the easiest solution...

[ray_]

Yeah, go to a parts counter and match it up, but shorter. 

 

Your alternator bushings are good, right?

 

Cheers,

['76mintgrün'02]

Don't buy a longer belt.

That would make it worse.

[irdave]

2 minutes ago, ray_ said:

Your alternator bushings are good, right?

 

When I was changing the belt, I grabbed the alternator and tried to twist it- didn't go anywhere.  I did replace the rubber/washer bits on the fixed end on the engine...

 

And Barney, I tried to get a picture, but it doesn't seem like there's an easy way to get a good enough view of anything without taking a bunch of stuff off...

[irdave]

1 minute ago, '76mintgrun'02 said:

Don't buy a longer belt.

That would make it worse.

Wouldn't that be good- it would come with extra bits as spare?  I've heard it's good to have spares for these things...

[Dudeland]

All jokes aside, make sure that the bearing is good in the alternator.  My PO over tightened the belt and that meant a new water pump and alternator. 

[ray_]

30 minutes ago, '76mintgrun'02 said:

Don't buy a longer belt.

That would make it worse.

 

I thought more was always better!

[BarneyT]

We still do not know if it’s the correct alternater...

[BarneyT]

Wrong picture 

[esty]

buy a longer belt

[TobyB]

I bet op has tii.

 

tii alternator is much less photogenic.

 

Buy the same length belt, but thicker.  Then it'll squeek less...

 

(seriously?  buy the next shorter size belt.  There are enough pullies out there that trying until you find the right size is sometimes the only way)

 

t

 

[jimk]

A little belt 101 -

V-Belts transmit power using the sides of the belt, not the bottom.

That means all pulleys need to be the same width so the matching belt works on all of them

Belts come in 10mm length increments.

 

The crank and water pump pulleys are going to be the width to use.  The alternator pulley may be wrong because the alternator may have replaced and the original pulley wasn't swapped onto it.  Check that it is the same width as the other two.

Go to work and find the answer to your question.