Club 80-90 Forums

Hey,

The alternator belt on my 1.6td Westy has snapped 6 times in the 6 months I've had the van. Starting to lose patience to say the least! Assumed 1st belt I had fitted at a local garage had been fitted wrong, so took it to a VW Bus specialist (Just VW) and then after the belt they fitted snapped, took the van to another VW specialist.

1st fix at 1st specialist was a new Alternator
2nd fix at 2nd specialist was changing the mounting bolt - garage said a M8 was fitted instead of an M10, so that was changed
3rd fix at 2nd specialist again was a good condition alternator pulley - garage said old pulley was rusty and running hot

2nd and 3rd fix both lasted around 2-3 weeks.

I'm going to speak to the 2nd specialist again tomorrow and see what they think. But obviously I don't want to throw more money at them when they have already failed twice.

Other than that, I'm tempted to check alignment as best I can using string, check for any obstructions that may catch on the belt, check all pulleys and water pump for play or damage. Anything else I can check?

I'm also tempted to put a new belt on and drive it for say 50 miles and then remove the belt again to see if it's starting to become damaged? I know it probably won't highlight exactly what's wrong, but may point me in the direction of finding what its catching on?

Am I missing anything else?

Thanks,

Chris

Go for it. Sounds to me as though these specialists are treating you as a cash cow. Besides, if you fix it you'll feel brill, better than watching telle.

Regards. Max

Could be the pulleys worn out,so the belt is being driven off the inside flat edge not the sides of the V,or pulleys not in line which will cause the belt to heat up and get brittle

Something must be wrong with the belt setup for it to happen so much.

Did anything change before the first broken belt - did somebody work on the engine that might have changed something?

Are there any clues to be gleaned from how the belts are breaking? Are they wearing thin then breaking or just snapping?

Could you post some pictures of your setup - might the pulleys not be properly aligned for example? Are the spacers on the water pump pulley set up properly?

Put a straightedge across the crankshaft pulley and you can check if the waterpump pulley is in line, if ok then across the waterpump pulley to see if the alternator one is in line.

I use to have a lot of issues with slipping aux belt on my 1.6td.turned out the alternator pulley was out of alignment with te water pump/crank pulleys.think there was a washer missing or in the wrong place can't quite remember.anyways been fine ever since.

Sounds like a 90a you're having trouble with.
Trouble is that "New" 90a alternators have a hole (for the long bolt) for 10mm whereas the bracket and the original alternator are M8.
You put an M8 bolt through a hole designed for a 10mm bolt and the alternator cockles over to one side and throws belts.
Rememdy? It is a remedy rather than cure but buy some 10mm OD, 8mm ID tube and make a sleeve for the long bolt to fit into the tube on the alternator.

https://www.cohpro.com/tube/steel-tube- ... -4927.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Or, just fit a 65a.

Also remember that you can't just swap a 65a for a 90a without changing the bracket with the elongated slot, they are specific to the alternator.

A lot of 90a alterntors listed to fit the T3 Diesel simply don't fit, there's a catalogue error somewhere down the line and a cross reference has gone awry, it may just be that it has the wrong alternator on it.

Simon Baxter wrote:Sounds like a 90a you're having trouble with.
Trouble is that "New" 90a alternators have a hole (for the long bolt) for 10mm whereas the bracket and the original alternator are M8.
You put an M8 bolt through a hole designed for a 10mm bolt and the alternator cockles over to one side and throws belts.
Rememdy? It is a remedy rather than cure but buy some 10mm OD, 8mm ID tube and make a sleeve for the long bolt to fit into the tube on the alternator.

https://www.cohpro.com/tube/steel-tube- ... -4927.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Or, just fit a 65a.

Also remember that you can't just swap a 65a for a 90a without changing the bracket with the elongated slot, they are specific to the alternator.

A lot of 90a alterntors listed to fit the T3 Diesel simply don't fit, there's a catalogue error somewhere down the line and a cross reference has gone awry, it may just be that it has the wrong alternator on it.

This has already been done and didn't cure the problem unfortunately.

I took a bit of a drastic step to be honest, the alternator pulley was sitting about 4-5mm out from the rest of the pulleys. It needed to come towards the front of the van. So we whipped the alternator off and took it to the machine shop in work and they took about 4mm off and we fitted spacers to the brackets. It's now pretty much bang on aligned to our eyes and a new belt on. If it's wrong, can always fir the spacers on the other side and bring it back!

Really hoping this sorts the van out, as you probably know, its horrible just knowing the van is going to break again anytime soon

Sorry to revive an old thread, but did machining some material off the alternator mount and adding a spacer fix your issue? I think I have the same problem after replacing my 65Amp alternator with a 90amp. Many thanks.