roughing up alt pulley and oil light/buzzer Question

[Rabbit on Roids]

i do not have AC
when i try to tighten my alt. i get a friend to pull up on it and i tighten that 17mm bolt, the bolt that lets the bracket swivle and a third bolt that is where the geared bolt is supposed to be.

I too would like to add a tensioner if this issue still persists (which i likely will)

why dont you just figure out why it does it and fix it? everyone else with V belts has no problem keeping them tight. the factory never put auto tensioners on them. take a loot at all your pullies, do they have the same width all the way around? sure one of them isnt squished a little bit? my audi has a whammied pulley, and depending on where it is in its rotation, it will either make the belt really tight, or really loose. its just kinda pinched, belt cant sink down all the way in the pulley.

might be something completely different tho.

[Smokey Eddy]

Yeah, i bought a much thicker belt and it seems to have helped. The issue is that it slowly over time with the vibrations seems to slacken off... like i should be using lock tite on the bolts or something??? I'm going to try some locking washers.


The car is starting to really need some work. Today on my way to the train station the brake pedal went rock hard scaring the **** out of me. Pardon my language but holy jeeze was that ever scary. it still stopped fine but i mean, when you feel the pedal go hard i always think the worst.

I desperately need to change the oil, filter, timing belt & tensioner, alternator pulley, and bleed the brakes (but i get home at 7:00 from work and everything is flipping closed and this past weekend was a holiday aughh the frustration). [i need to search about my brake pedal going so hard. It was like when you pump the brakes with no vaccuum (the car is off) and the pedal just goes hard... gave me the fright of my life because i live up a very large hill and i was at the time rushing to the train down said hill]

[Rabbit on Roids]

my bet is either your vac pump took a dump, or your brake booster did. usually solid pedal is one of those 2 things. doubt bleeding the brakes will do anything. bleeding the brakes helps when you have a spongy pedal.

[Smokey Eddy]

Yeah i know air = spongy - bleed the air out.
What do you mean by "took a dump" because my braking came back afterwards...
it looks pretty old (the pump) and the booster looks excellent (like it has been replaced recently - no rust no corrosion)
i am going to bleed them because the pedal is normally spongier than i would like

[truckinwagen]

I had an issue with old vac lines from the pump to the booster with cracks in them giving me a hard pedal, until I spilled oil on them, then I got my brakes back!

I would start by checking the vac hoses and connections for leaks, sometimes the rubber hose will only leak under certain conditions giving you an inconsistently hard pedal

[Smokey Eddy]

hey yeah i seem to recall that rubber looks quite perished.
Is the pump it's self pretty fail safe? do they seem to last forever?
I was able to stop the car quite easily. I couldn't lock the tired up by any means but i could apply a decent amount of stopping force but i really had to try.

[truckinwagen]

if it is the rotary style then yes, they seem to last forever. the diaphragm ones not so much, but they are not hard or expensive to rebuild.

I would replace all the rubber vac lines(I did on mine, made a huge difference) and see what that does for you.

even with four wheel disc, my car stops just fine with no power assist, just takes more force.

[Smokey Eddy]

Yeah i wish i had 4 wheel disk. stupid drums...
Alright i'll find some good hose then! Cheers. Added to the list of "things to do on day off"

[Vincent Waldon]

Yeah i wish i had 4 wheel disk. stupid drums...

Don't sweat 'em too much... I know lots of folks that have taken all the time and effort to swap out the rear drums for disks... and not ONE of 'em is glad they did... a ton of work and no appreciable change in braking power.  Kinda makes sense, since so little braking force comes from the rear.

In fact, VW rear calipers are known to be way more trouble when it comes to the emergency brake part of the mechanism.

[truckinwagen]

yeah, the only reason I have rear disc is because it came with them from the factory.

I like rear disc for a couple reasons, but I would not swap them unless the rear drums needed to be completely replaced anyway.

disc breaks dont work as well as drums without a booster, my point was that even a disc car stopped fine without boost, so a car with rear drums should stop fine without a booster too.

[Vincent Waldon]

The issue is that it slowly over time with the vibrations seems to slacken off... like i should be using lock tite on the bolts or something???

The geared tensioning nut not only makes it real easy to tighten the belt but locks the adjustment down super tight by binding against the teeth on the adjustment arm... no locktite or washers required. 

[Smokey Eddy]

Yeah i wish i had 4 wheel disk. stupid drums...

Don't sweat 'em too much... I know lots of folks that have taken all the time and effort to swap out the rear drums for disks... and not ONE of 'em is glad they did... a ton of work and no appreciable change in braking power.  Kinda makes sense, since so little braking force comes from the rear.

In fact, VW rear calipers are known to be way more trouble when it comes to the emergency brake part of the mechanism.

Hey i've totally experienced this first hand... mk4 golf hand brake is constantly getting jammed.

[Smokey Eddy]

The issue is that it slowly over time with the vibrations seems to slacken off... like i should be using lock tite on the bolts or something???

The geared tensioning nut not only makes it real easy to tighten the belt but locks the adjustment down super tight by binding against the teeth on the adjustment arm... no locktite or washers required. 

I hear ya. I need to find me one. From sigh, the dealer. But before i can drive all the way out to the nearest vw dealer i need to order it likely. Maybe AVR can order it for me... bet they can. I'll call em up sometime.
cheers fellas

[Smokey Eddy]

and yes i still managed to stop the car just fine it was just scary because it's never a plesant feeling to have to grip the wheel and pull your self into the pedal to prevent your self from flying into heavy traffic at the bottom of the hill

[Rabbit on Roids]

Yeah i wish i had 4 wheel disk. stupid drums...
Alright i'll find some good hose then! Cheers. Added to the list of "things to do on day off"

4 wheel disks stop you no faster than drums. i actually like the drums better because they dont lock up as easy. my GTI locks up all 4 tires very easily. its much harder to do a controlled stop when the rear breaks lock up too. i think i will stick with drum brakes unless the car comes with disks.