[Ollie]

Might have to make a trip up to Lynnwood, There is a Pick A Part, next door is Best Auto Parts.

[AROWHED]

You may be right. One thing about that alternator, it doesn't have the thin steel sleeve inside the lower bolt boss that the alternator pivots on. The pivot bolt is 3/8", but the hole is larger, maybe 7/16"....allows alternator to rock around a bit prior to tightening everything up, and is probably allowing it to tip some what under belt tension...especially since the upper bracket does little for keeping things square. Will see about adding the secondary bracket at top, the one that goes diagonally over to thermostat bolts on intake. And try to get one of those steel sleeves for the pivot boss.

[Fishin2Deep4U]

Originally Posted by Ollie

Might have to make a trip up to Lynnwood, There is a Pick A Part, next door is Best Auto Parts.

Yeah, I may have to do that. Just a long drive from down south.

I was hoping tip find parts a bit closer to home. I'll check e-pay as well.

Dave

[Ollie]

Received the DAYCO Belt Diagnostic Kit.
Reading the instructions, Dayco recmondes for a new belt 6 rib belt installation 210 lbs.
Retension amount after 3 to 5 minutes of run-in 180 lbs.
Checked with the Dayco A TENSION Gauge. the gauge is available at select auto parts stores as the KRIKIT II" tension gauge.

[jimmo]

Originally Posted by Ollie

Received the DAYCO Belt Diagnostic Kit.
Reading the instructions, Dayco recmondes for a new belt 6 rib belt installation 210 lbs.
Retension amount after 3 to 5 minutes of run-in 180 lbs.
Checked with the Dayco A TENSION Gauge. the gauge is available at select auto parts stores as the KRIKIT II" tension gauge.

Ordered that kit. I figure at that price its a pretty good bang for the buck. A "must have" for the tinkering Im doing. Cant wait till it gets here.

[Ollie]

You will like it,
I have been out in the garage playing with the belt diagnostic kit all afternoon. Discoved the alternator pulley needed another thin spacer found a washer that is the correct thickness the alternator pulley is aligned correctly.
with out using the target the beam, mount the projector on the crank pulley and check the AC compressor pulley alignment it was right on.Then mounted the projector on the AC pulley and checked the other pulleys. Without the target the beam can be projected across all 4 of the other pulleys.
Also tried to use the belt tension gauge, could not get that to work either.
Tried to take some photos but the beam washed out in the flash. Latter will set up the camera on a tripod and take some in reduced light.

[jimmo]

I was hoping mine would come today but no such luck. Ya get the tension gauge working yet?

[Ollie]

No but I am satisfied with the tension. Have you noticed on the back side of the tension pulley there is a slot with a pointer. when the belt is installed the pointer should be about half way in the slot.

[jimmo]

Originally Posted by Ollie

No but I am satisfied with the tension. Have you noticed on the back side of the tension pulley there is a slot with a pointer. when the belt is installed the pointer should be about half way in the slot.

I didnt notice that but when the tool comes, hopefully today, Ill take it off and have a look. I always thought the auto tensioner I used felt a little tight. We'll see.

[Ollie]

The first photo shows the indicator, when the belt is not installed the indicator should look like this.

When the belt is installed the indicator should look like the second photo, with the indicator about half way in the slot.

[jimmo]

Received the dayco tool and messed around a little over the weekend. Had lots of other work to do so I didnt have enough time but here is what I found so far.....My alternator pulley was too far forward. I dont have a thin enough washer so I will have to order a pulley shim kit. The power steering is out of angular alignment. Its sort of tilted back, the top of the pulley toward the rear of the car and the bottom of the pulley toward the front of the car. The shaft is not inline with all the other shafts. I wonder if there are inconsistencies i n all of these stamped steel style brackets or if mine are just tweaked? At least now I know what needs to be done.
One more strange thing is that the paint was worn off of the front rim of the crank pulley. I am wondering if the belt rode off the front of it by one rib for a moment or two. Possibly the ps pulley had something to do with it or maybe I installed it incorrectly once as I had the belt on and off a lot. Kinda fitting as the front rib is what separated from the rest of the belt.
Ollie, I had to shave the magnets a little in order to get the receiver to seat on the small diameter alternator pulley correctly. did you have the same problem with your dayco tool?

[Ollie]

I didn't use the receiver to check the alternator pulley alignment. I used the projector on the drives side of the crank pulley and projected the line up the water pump pulley and the alternator pulley. The light line should project in the second groove. The alternator pulley was not out far enough on my set up. had to add a thin washer to move the pulley out one groove.
These are the two spacers I used to get the correct pulley alinement.
the first shim is from E bay seller performance_electric item # 230751885094
Id 0.67"
Od 0.98"
thickness 0.04"
Second shim E bay seller triodide item # 230864107680
Id 0.673
Od 0.87
Thickness 0.228"
these are the two spacers I used to align the alternator pulley.

[AROWHED]

Hey Jimmo, Hot Rod magazine is gonna make you famous. Getting some press on page 148 of August 2013 issue.

[Ollie]

Is there an on line link.

[jimmo]

Thats cool! cant wait to see it. How did ya find out? By the way, an update, I have just under 300 miles on my new belt after lining up the pulleys with the dayco tool. I would of had more miles racked up by now but my super t-10 started to get really noisy so I had to rebuild it and the car was down about a month. Also the weather hear is being very uncooperative this season.

[AROWHED]

I was just flipping thru the latest issue at home, and the Pit Stop section has an article for serpentine drives for Pontiac V8s. They referenced this PY topic, March and Rodney Red as potential solutions. I had to laugh when I read in the article about "working out subtle belt alignment issues"...!!
BTW, my setup is still running strong..added a rear bracket to back of alternator some time ago, and it seems to have eliminated all problems. Still want to do the serp AC upgrade with the Sanden compressor, but home improvements have made money kinda tight for quite a while now...ya gotta keep momma happy!

[Mr T81]

Started reading this thread the other day, definetly something I plan to do in the near future...

[rustedgoat]

I know there has been a lot of tinkering around to get things adjusted, but is there an up to date list of things we should acquire? Is proper shim thickness so sensitive that its going to be an engine by engine spec or the same for everyone?

[Ollie]

What year engine and heads which AC compressor are you running.
For a up to date list with late model heads and a Sanden AC compressor check post 208 on page 11. any more questions don't be afraid to ask.

[jimmo]

Originally Posted by rustedgoat

I know there has been a lot of tinkering around to get things adjusted, but is there an up to date list of things we should acquire? Is proper shim thickness so sensitive that its going to be an engine by engine spec or the same for everyone?

I Think everyone's set up might require slightly different shims. I could be wrong but they shouldnt vary too much. these motors are old and every one has seen a slew of new and different changes. For example, different thicknesses in waterpump and timing cover gaskets will change the offsest of the crank and waterpump pulley. Also, the brackets are stamped steel and not cast, not sure how consistent they are from one to the next. Ive switched to a gm alternator pulley so that required different shimming. I know its a long thread to read and it seams like a lot of info but its not that big of a project once its underway. Its pretty straight forward.
Anyone thats gonna tackle it without AC should start with the original list of fasteners and shims from the begining and tweek it from there. It will definately get you in the ballbark. Oh and any standard type idler pulley will work.