Alternator belt squeal

[3point8]

Am I the only one who has trouble with belt squeal on a hotair engine?
I run mine pretty tight I'm worried if I tighten it anymore the alternator bearings will fail.
Its worse in winter when cold with the headlights on.

Anyone converted to the flat serpentine style belt and pulleys?

Peter

 

[V6cious]

I think that your problem may be the alt pulley has a little wear try replacing that

 

[3point8]

Thanks for your reply. I wondered about the wear issue on the pulley but it looked OK so I wasn't sure. I just got another alternator so I shall swap it out and see if that fixes it.
thanks

Peter

 

[84T-typeMike]

Do you have the A/C unit removed?If A/C unit it not on car there is only 1 belt to drive the fan/waterpump.In which case it is hard for the 1 belt to drive the fan and pump so it tends to squeal.If the A/C unit is on the car and both A/C and Alt belts are tight it is probably the power steering belt squealing.Or you can do like I'm doing and that is I run NO A/C unit therefore I am going to put a 2 belt pully on the Alt. And run 2 belts.Kinda like Lee's 10 sec. Hot Air! HTH!

 

[3point8]

belt squeal

84t-typeMike, you got it!!
No A/C !
I think I have it under control now I put on a new belt. The old one had stretched a little more since I adjusted it before Christmas aggravating the problem even more.
I'm thinking of switching to electric fan so that should reduce the load on the belt a little.
Thanks for your input.
Peter

 

[turbogimp]

I have the same problem with the ALT belt squeal. I dont have AC. My ALT is new. where can i get the two belt pully and do i have to replace the other pullies? thanks for any help

 

[alec296]

belt squeal

i just blew my belt this week during a big smoky launch.
first thing i noticed is the belt thickness i went to a "17" wide goodyear.rides alittle high in pulley but then a found a alternater off a early v8 buick with 2 grooves and thought to run 2 belts but the thicker belt has been fine so far and i have done a couple of full throttle runs and no problems.
plus belt was alittle shorter than what book calls for.
andy

 

[billygeg]

same problem here

I have the same exact problem with a new alternator and new belt. I had my fan pulley powder coated. I wonder if that could be the problem? I know powder coating is pretty thick. I also have a heat issue with the belt on the alternator. My last belt was melting. I do notice that the belts seem to bounce around alittle more then I think they should. How tight are they supposed to be?

 

[novaderrik]

i don't know what the people at Buick were thinking when they designed the belt routing on the 231 V6- there is no real good way to make everything work well without tightening the hell out of the AC compressor and alternator. i did find that taking off my mechanical cooling fan and going to an electric fan made the belt squealing a lot less bad.