Indycam

It looks high in the groove on the crank pulley .
It might be "fat" for the groove .
If you pull off the belt , what does the groove show ?
If its running high , that could be part of the problem .
If its bottoming out in the groove on the top pulley , that could also be part of the problem .
In the ideal world , the smooth shiny surface would be not at the top or bottom of the groove .

If you do remove the belt , please grab the shaft and try to move it up down and sideways .
Also spin it and see if you feel anything funny in the bearings .

SNOWBIRD

All makes sense, another detail is the alternator is a year old or so. I was going to post a You tube of it running for you to see, it would have been pointless. Belt tension seens right everything looks kosher, except possibly the alignment, it's hard to tell. I am taking the alt pulley off and apart. I will check to see how the shaft feels. But before I take anything off, I am going to figure out a way to measure between the fan and alt belts, it may be an illusion, but the belts seem slightly farther apart at the bottom than up at the top at the alt pulley.... Also, I need to see the spacers, see where they are nowadays, touch them in my hands if you know what I mean. Also the inner faces of the pulley halves are not smooth, it's either corrosion or old v-belt residue...

Indycam

Seeing it run would not say much , imho .
If you don't see something while you are standing there ...

Running a fine snap line up the side of the belt will show if it jogging sideways ?

Blown Away

Just an idea...
Does the pulley get hot as it could be the bearings failing in the alternator/fan unit. I have the same belts and wear is not a problem in over 30k miles. Pulley is not cheap to replace but you could look at an RS type which uses one belt.

Indycam

Whats the news ?

SNOWBIRD

Monday she's getting new brake pads at a new-to-me shop, I will add that to the work order. I've been getting a little beat up by the toys this month; New rear tires on the car. New front tire, mufflers, carb jetting, air cleaner, dyno tune and chrome trinkets for the Harley, $500 repair to the bayboats trolling motor, and $600 in front end work on the Tahoe. I am waiting until my next good commission check and the new seat covers will get ordered. I need to stop the bleeding for a few weeks LOL I think I'll go fishing

jimq

you also brought the cool weather with you
how has the fishing been?

SNOWBIRD

Huh??? Nice down here below the Tropic Line
Fishing has been excellent, sails galore, lots of mahi.....

Richard Curtis

This might be a long shot, but one of the washers is cone-shaped. If it's installed backwards (I don't recall which way is correct), it will place a lot of stress on the belt, heating it up a LOT, leading to problems of course. When I first replaced my belts, I got this cone-shaped washer in backwards and only after noticing a LOT of smoke from the belt afterwards, plus investigating the correct way of installing the cone-shaped washer, did I correct the problem. It's been 3-4 years now and no problems since. Sorry, but I can't remember where I saw the correct orientation of the cone-shaped washer; might have been Adrian Streather's book.

SNOWBIRD

Just picked it up from the shop. The mechanic who seems to really know these cars looked at the belt on the car (with me standing there). He immediately pointed out the belt was the wrong one, it needs to be 10mm wide not 9.5 (as indicated virtually everywhere I looked)... We'll see....

Oh, and he chastised me for not driving it enough (about 7,000mi yr) I told him I couldn't afford the belts LOL