Now, I find the stock Mk2 diesel upper rad hose an abomination, so I'm rotating my alternator up as far as it goes so a custom rad hose can go in front of the alternator. As a result, the stock tensioner won't work but that's fine, I don't like the stock tensioner anyway: it adds to belt wear and reduces wrap on the alternator pulley, which then slips and squeals. No, I wanted to delete it and push on the backside of the belt instead. There's already a thread here on how to do that, so I followed suit with my own flavor. I decided to make the pulley as large as possible to make a gentle bend (and also to slow down the RPM of the pulley, to make the bearing last longer).
The bearing is from a local bearing supply place, 3/8" ID and cost about $5.
I used a 2" long 3/8" carriage bolt, which is the perfect size for the stock Mk2 A/C bracket slot. I like carriage bolts because you only need one tool to tighten/loosen them instead of two.
As you can see though, with the stock belt I am already almost out of adjustment range. This will work for now but I think I'll end up with a shorter belt in the near future.
I think it looks purty.
Also, I made marks and my tensioner pulley turns about 3/4 of a turn for every turn of the alternator, so that should help longevity. Now just hope it works! I still have a lot of work left to do before the car runs (both engine bay wiring harnesses are completely out of the car, plus I have coolant and fuel hoses and a turbo drain to deal with), so sorry it will be a while before I have an update.
