IMHO, this is a bad practice. With only one belt there is very little
contact with the water pump pulley. Look and you will see what I mean.
If the belt should get a little loose and/or the pump get harder to
turn, the water pump may not always spin. The alternator will still spin
so you won't get any warning before the temp shoots up and engine
failure occurs.

With the stock 2 belt system the alternator only spins if the water pump
does. Any failure that causes the water pump pulley to stop will also
cause the alternator to stop turning and the RED ALT led will come on to
tell you to stop and check to see what is wrong.

Mark

"F.J. Stefanovich" wrote:
>
> When I bought this Vanagon new, it had two belts on it, and I
> always replaced them as a pair.  Then the alternator belt broke
> in Aachen, Germany in '94.  I made it to a VW dealer and they put
> on the single belt.  When I questioned this, the service manager
> said it was the way they did it now as the "modern" belts were
> more reliable than the old ones.  He showed me two diesel
> Vanagons they had in the shop at the time and they both had the
> single belt.  I've put about 40k on it with one belt with no
> problems.
>
> Joe in Albuquerque
>
>