Who's thumb are you pushing with... mine or my three year old son's???

I wish there was a more definitive way to measure belt tension.

David Marshall

Fast Forward Automotive Inc.
4356 Quesnel Hixon Road
Quesnel BC Canada  V2J 6Z3
mailto:info@fastforward.ca <mailto:info@fastforward.ca>
http://www.fastforward.ca <http://www.fastforward.ca>
Phone: (250) 992 7775           FAX: (250) 992 1160

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-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf
Of David Beierl
Sent: January 20, 2002 4:46 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Alternator belt tension

At 07:45 PM 1/20/2002, Robie Pierce wrote:
>'91 Carat - New belt by my mechanic. Squeals like hell at start up. He
>claims most vanagons do.

Can't he do better than that?  At the dealer they'd say "ALL Vanagons do
[insert obvious malfunction here]."

Ah, at the Vanagon gatherings, I love the sound of massed belts squealing
as everyone starts up for the parade....

In other words, no.

>Claims if you over tighten you will be buying a
>new water pump.

That's true enough.  Try tightening it to the spec (1 cm depression with
your thumb on a brand-new belt, 1.5 cm if it's been used for more than five
minutes) and see what happens...

ref 27.21

david

>Any belt better than another? I used to put belt

--
David Beierl - Providence, RI
  http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"