AC and alternator belt help plz!

[vanbcguy]

It is definitely a chore on a MK2 with AC and PS, especially if it's a new ordeal for you to figure out and tackle.... I don't see a few hours being out of the question at all for the job on a lazy weekend if it's new to you.

Ja, it can be a bit of a brain teaser for a nooB:
 - The airbox can be an interference on the TD models
 - The hidden bolt on the PS pump bracket
 - The nearly hidden capscrew behind the belts on the compressor
 - The frequent need to lower the compressor to get its belt off, then raise the compressor to get the alternator belt between the crank pulley and the compressor pulley, then lower the compressor again to get its belt back on, then raise the compressor again to get the alt belt up to the alt...

Then VW threw the curveball when they added the expensive freewheeling double shiv waterpump pulley that required the PS belt to be installed to drive the waterpump while the freewheeling shiv drove the AC and Alt.

It can be done in ~30min, if you know & have all the tools needed, the order of operations and all the bolts are not stuck; but it is quite a drag to do it in the rain ( when the belt is more likely to fly off).

I just finished doing the very last step in the AC-ectomy on Jezebel.  She never had AC from the factory, but someone had swapped in an AC 1.6TD before I bought her.  That dang double shiv waterpump pulley is sitting on my work table right now, FINALLY off the car.  Had my first drive today without it rattling away - oh man, the little things in life that can drive you crazy eh?

The fact that the double shiv pulley overlaps the PS pump pulley so that you can't actually remove the belt without either undoing one of the pulleys or dropping the PS pump bracket is really the bear of it all.  Nothing like trying to undo frozen in place hex bolts on something that wants to spin.

[bbob203]

I can definitely do it in 30-40 minutes. Let's have a contest via YouTube haha

We are both in Louisville it could be a driveway showdown   

what part of town you n?

[srgtlord]

Or...you could do the serp swap and change the belt in 2 minutes lol

[bbob203]

Or...you could do the serp swap and change the belt in 2 minutes lol

I hear that's problematic since there is a bolt missing on the 1.6 block.

[92EcoDiesel Jetta]

Too bad the OP never reported back on whether this problem was solved or not. But reading it again, I suspect the rust on the alt pulley has something to do with it. If the belt flap as much as he says and eventually fly off, then there might have been alignment issues on the 3 pulleys.

I have a 91 Jetta Diesel with a TD transplanted into it.  

I'm having an absolute hell of a time getting the AC and Alternator belts working right.  

I've tried Goodyear, NAPA, OEM, and now even the $15 Gatorback belts.  They all do the same thing - I tighten them down to spec, then they flap around when the car runs (even when tight!  very strange!), then they just stretch out until they're about to flap off.  So then I have to adjust the tension on both, and after about 2-3 adjustments there's no adjustment room left on the alternator pulley.  At this point the belt just keeps getting looser and looser until it squeals and then eventually just flys off.  

This all takes place over the course of maybe 20-25 miles.  So it's extremely fast.  My AC spins very freely.  My alternator pulley is very stable and is in good shape as far as I can tell.  My alternator pulley has a little surface rust but I don't think that's the issue.  Once again, they have a tendancy to flap around like mad.  My PS/WP belt does not exhibit this same behavior.

Does anyone have any idea why this could be happening?  I can't even drive the car more than 30 minutes without having the belts squeal and risk flying off.  Am I alone in this plight?  

Thanks,
Ray

[JASGTi]

I can definitely do it in 30-40 minutes. Let's have a contest via YouTube haha

We are both in Louisville it could be a driveway showdown   

what part of town you n?

Fern Creek

[R.O.R-2.0]

Or...you could do the serp swap and change the belt in 2 minutes lol

I hear that's problematic since there is a bolt missing on the 1.6 block.

any block older than an ABA doesnt have all the provisions for the alternator bracket..

you can work around it, its only one bolt, there are 3 others right there around it..

i made a bracket that bolts to my block, and makes up the extra bolt hole..

[bbob203]

did some tinkering with my belts today. I have the absolute shortest possible belts to use for both the ac and alternator, I have manual steering. For the ac belt I'm using a gates xl green stripe part number is 9370 dimensions are 12mm width x 949mm outer circumference and for the alternator belt I'm using a gates xl part number 7265 dimensions 9.5mm/10mm x 690mm out circumference. in addition to the doing the belts I also cleaned and lubed the tensioner pulley bearing by pulling the shield off giving it a good bath and filling it with VW cv axle lube (this is key to keeping the noise down and this thing to not freeze up and kill your belt) and used a thin fender washer to correctly align the pulley. I was running this same ac belt for awhile and It has no wear and hasn't stretched past it's initiAl retension several thousand miles ago. I was running a conti belt after I took the failure of my previous solution i posted that ended with belt failure after 1000 miles. The conti belt probably had at least 5-8k (hard to believe)on it but it was still useable surprisingly I've never had a conti v belt shred on me cuz I always keep a close eye on it. I knew it needed replacing before to long so I went to my friendly oreillys and had them give me one size lower than the computer advised. this is where it gets a bit tricky maybe to tricky for some. In order to get both belts on you have to have to pull the airbox(turbo diesel only) and the harmonic balancer pulley. I spent about 1.5-2 hours screwing with it but it paid off. ac belt has >4-5mm of deflection not running and 0 running the alt belt has >4-5mm not running and immeasurable but slight and significantly less deflection while running than any other belt I've ever used previously with equal non running deflection. These gates belt are very well made and come with 3 year warranty.