Keep blowing belts, tensioner??

NewBlueGT

Founding Member
Sep 2, 1999
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San Luis Obispo
Reciently I've been blowing belts badly to the point were I can not drive the car.

If I track the belt correctly and start the car, it will immediatly jump one rib towards the engine on the AC pully.

Eventually this belt will wear out and slip off the tensioner and snap.

At a shop, me and a mechanic checked the allignment and it seemed straight. All the pullies are bolted down tightly and all seems fine. The shop couldn't find out what was wrong and said it would take some costly analysis.

I limped the car home, breaking down twice.


The next hunch leads me to the tensioner. How do I know if its bad?

Thanks for the help.
 
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most likely NOT the tensioner. Check to see all the pullies spin freely. If so, then i'd bet its probably the alternator. Once it heats up and the resistance goes up it gets harder and harder to spin. Could be gettin very hard to spin and causign the belt to drag on it.
 
have you had the belt off and felt the p/s pump pulley? the bearings or teflon stuff within wears bad, its a common problem sometimes you could even notice gray/silver in your p/s fluid. but the pulley will become very unsteady, wobble and such. theres nothing you can do besides rebuild or replace it...part of my reason for going manual steering. it didnt get so bad that i threw belts, but it did get scary wobbly.