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Odd question for those more knowledgeable....

What is the normal operating temp range for the fan belt on a stock

1600?

I ask because I suppose I am a bit paranoid. I lost my alternator a while back, fixed it, and then a few days later lost the pulley. There I was tooling along, hit the clutch to stop for a light ahead...and the engine dies. Will not restart, will not crank. Get out, find that the rear sheave split in two, dug into the alternator face, and stopped dead. So I got a new pulley, belt is nice and tight, but damn if that pulley and belt doesn't get HOT. After a run the belt is uncomfortable, almost too hot to grab/touch. Tension seems correct to me.

If I take the belt off the alternator spins free without any abnormal noises.

Am I being paranoid?

Chris

Reply to
halatos
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Now how did you "lose" an alternator and HOW did you fix it?

Did you tighten down that pulley nut when you checked that the alternator spun freely? Is that key installed in the alternator shaft and the pulley? Is the alternator correctly positioned so the belt runs straight?

I don't recall belts ever getting too hot to touch! Unless something else was wrong! Slippage would cause things to heat up. Someone told me that a trick to deglaze the pulleys is to put some valve lapping compound onto the belts and run the engine. I have not tried that yet and YMMV!

JMHO

Reply to
dave AKA vwdoc1

What happened was the threaded section of the alternator shaft divorced itself from the rest of the shaft while I was driving. The alternator itself was still charging at the time of the failure, but there isn't any way that I know of to repair the shaft once the threaded stub on the end fractures off. So I pulled the engine, removed the motorola alternator(4 wire style) and replaced it with a reman Bosch 4-wire style.

Yes. The pulley adapter does not hit the alternator case.

Yes, the key is in place and the belt has a straight shot visually. I had to shim out the crank pulley a bit to get it to run straight.

It might be slipping because it makes a bit of noise that goes away if I hit the belt with some carb cleaner while the engine is running. But the tension seems okay?

Maybe I just need a new belt...?

Chris

Reply to
Hal

OK how did you shim out the "crank pulley"???

Sounds like it could be slipping and maybe the belt is too loose or too elastic.

Yes maybe a new belt! ;-)

Reply to
dave AKA vwdoc1

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