My mk1 keeps eating fan belts :/

Well not exactly as titled ha ha

Its not eating the fan belts literally but my fan belt started squealing the other week so i decided to tighten it a little, this sorted it out for a few days but then it started agen,

So i bought a new one which decided to squeal eithin 5 miles of driving, checked it and it was really loose, so same agen i tightened it then this did nothing, squealed pretty much straight away

Just so u know wat i have, i have 2.0l 16v conversion with the alternator from the mk3(if im correct) the belts is ribbed and has 6 ribs, it is the self tensioning one with the spring under the alternator

Ive had my pulleys powdercoated(dunno if that might be why its squealing) but i cant see that wud be it cuz it has only just started doing it

I did notice that the belts were rubbing along the one side, dunno if the pulleys arent quite in line and thats wats causing it but i dnt have much time to check atm as im working alot

Anyone have any ideas of what to look for or wat it might be?

Thanks dan

I'd say your pulley seems worn but readin the thread the powdercoating might be your prob you might need to resize the belt as your pulley is bigger  with the powder coating …..

Yh i thort it might be summat to do with the powdercoating but it seems wierd how ive them powdercoated for a while and its only just seemed to start doing it :/ 

I actually put a few different lengths on since and they dnt seem to be doing anything

The lengths not the solution mate but the size of the V in the belt …….. 

Ah i see, how is this measured then?

There will be a measurementon the belt itself ie. width X length  go a size bigger see if it helps .. 

Right, ill have a look wen i get chance

Cheers buddy 

rubjonny  

Do u know what size i cud chose from i know uve probly got it tooked away in that catalogue of a brain uve got ha ha

Lol I've just read the whole thread again it's a flat belt your runnin so sorry for the bum steer . If it's eating flat belts something's out of line . Get the car runnin and study the belt see where it's being eaten away ……. 

http://www.vwspares.co.uk/g3belts.php

its the 893mm one you need if the alternator has a massive spring under it, maybe post up some pictures!

Right john ive had a look at my alternator setup and it looks like that my alternator pulley isnt in line properly with bottom pulley bolted to the engine, i looks like the alternator pulleys sticks out to far, not by a lot but it looks to me that is why its squealing cuz wen i took the belt off you cud see it has been wearing away on the sides, but the thing i dnt understand is that everything is bolted where it should be and nothing is loose and im guessing everything is correct :/ 

could be a vr6/diesel alternator/pulley? or possibly a late type pulley form the ones with the tensioning wheel. I dont have any good hires pics of the early setup but from squining at my cabby build thread it does look to be lower offset than the later ones…

id take some measurements then get down local scrappy

Actually now you come to meantion it, the alternator setup was the other alternator setup when i bought the engine, (the one with the tensioning wheel) i just binned the bracket and bought the other bracket to suite the spring setup, i think i didnt change the bottom pulley and alternator cuz i thort theyd be the same

the other pulleys are the same, however the alternator is very different. i didn't think it would bolt up at all? the alternator pulley may swap over just not 100% if its same. I know the VR6 alt pulley is no good for sure, different offset. yours looks to be the same as my later 16v alternator tho

Im not sure then john, i have got another alternator in the garage but that was the same size, so which one do you think i need to be looking for?

need to find early mk3 alternator to match your bracket setup, then compare the pulleys. if you have a late alternator on your car then swap it for an early one but as i say they're pretty different so id be surprised if you managed to get it on!