Another Alternator Belt Tensioner - 3VX belts?

[TylerDurden]

I have seen the serpentine conversions and some other mods that remove the compressor. They all seem pretty good.

But... I'm stubborn enough to try to find the root of the problem and a hillbilly solution. (For awhile anyway. )

The belt does not seem to slip on the AC compressor. If it's wear on the alternator pulley, that should be available somewhere.

If the belts have changed, some replacements may require changing some pulleys.

more later...

[bbob203]

You would think a thicker belt would make up for the wear on the pulleys.

[bbob203]

Yea that is true about the belt not slipping on the a/c. Inless of course its turned on. But I disconnected my ac. Now I can use my defroster in the rain. But I think I would like to be able to use my ac in the summer when it isn't raining. So I've decided to keep it for now.

[chuckling1]

Well my experiment is over for now. I'm going to back to the stock setup but with the brand new pulley and a bando 9.5mm x 700. I went through two belts so far due to cogs tearing off with this modified setup. I want to test it out with just the new pulley and maybe I won't have to tighten it as often.

My current mileage is 241,536... I put this current belt on at 240,617
so I made it 919 miles.

[bbob203]

what pulley are you replacing.

[chuckling1]

I only replaced the tensioner pulley

[bbob203]

was working on my car tonite and was thinking about this belt stuff. why not get a shorter a drive belt so as to bring the ac pump down wich in turn would decrease the anount the tensioner for the alt would have to be pulled out toward the radiator in turn increasing the amount of wrap on the alt pulley. make sense? I was think maybe a 13x 935 or 935 belt for the ac maybe smaller if its doable. or why not even a shorter alt belt? or both?

[TylerDurden]

The stock belts are not easy to get on. Smaller might be impossible without damaging something.

The slack is cumulative, from the AC belt to the alternator belt: both stretch and the alternator gets double slack once the AC is adjusted. I can easily see replacing the alternator belt 2x or 3x more than the AC belt, which sux all the more, as it is the innermost belt.

Raising the idle might be as helpful as anything. The pulsing of the low idle seems to tug/release the belts causing a fair bit of flapping on the slack side of the belts, even after tightening. A higher idle seems to smooth out the belts' travel.

I fiddled with another concept yesterday: Similar to the first idler/roller, but not as much deflection. I placed a wrench handle midway to just guide the belt in a straight line from the AC sheave to the alternator... seemed to help without stressing the belt backwards. I just need to devise a mount for the rollers - it won't be as simple as the first try.

[82vdub]

I can easily see replacing the alternator belt 2x or 3x more than the AC belt, which sux all the more, as it is the innermost belt.

When I last did the belts on ole 82, I tried to install two belts for the alternator, one for actual use, and the other to be tied up out of the way. I've always found that the alternator belt wears out first, requiring the changing of both the belts to get at the one bad one. I was unsuccessful at getting an extra belt in there though. My 82 Rabbit with AC I have to remove the alternator to tension and get at the AC compressor, which just extends the time needed to just change a belt.

[bscutt]

82vdub I am unfortunately too familiar with that setup. When I dismantled my 93 Passat with the eco engine in it I snagged the compressor tensioning setup out of it but forgot to see if I could adapt that to my 82 when I had it all part in August. The MKI A/C belt setup was clearly designed by someone on psychotropic drugs or by someone who had never done car maintenance. I have a ritual for getting the compressor belt tight and just retension the alternator belt every few thousand miles or whenever I notice that it's getting slack. I've put up with it for 8+years now so I guess I've gotten used to it.

[82vdub]

I've actually got a block of wood that's in my tool bin for using a floor jack to push up on the AC compressor for tightening. It is what it is I guess.

[Fatmobile]

Have you folks tried removing the crank pully.
4 bolts, off with the AC belt.
No loosening/adjusting the compressor.

[82vdub]

I've actually removed the water pump pully and slipped the belt off. However, that only works when you're replacing a properly tensioned belt, not re-tensioning. Just about anything except pulling the alternator out.

[CarlosA]

I`ve been kinda watching this thread, and thinking that i`d like to do something similar eventually.

What do you guys think of using a hexagonal belt? Something that could use another V pulley as an idler pulley to help wrap that alternator pulley with the 180+ degrees of engagement.

http://www.powerdrive-belt.com/new/prod ... id=7&id4=1
http://www.veegrip.com/product-wrapped- ... -belts.htm

Maybe they aren`t designed to bend in the right direction, but if so would be a good solution.

[Fatmobile]

That's an interesting solution.
Because it seems like much of the problem with the custom tensioner setups is the belt no wanting to bend backwards.
Before this thread I didn't realise that,.. also didn't know they made special belts that bend both ways until just now, ha.