Hello all,
Today I replaced the alternator drive belt on my '81 Westy.  As many of
you remember, I reported the alternator making very bad metal-to-metal
sounding noises.

Paul Wies suggested replacing the drive belt because he had a similar
problem and replacing the belt fixed it.

Well, I happened to have a spare and I figured it couldn't hurt
anything, so I replaced it.  Upon removing the old one I saw that it was
badly cracked.  It was, however, a VW drive belt (VW and Audi logo still
visible, faded, but visible).  Who knows how old that one was. 

I replaced it with a new one, which was toothed.  I found out that it's
much more of a pain in the ass to replace the belt on a Vanagon than a
Bus.  On the Vanagon you have to remove two heater ducts, the fan
screen, the timing scale, and you have to loosen the heater blower
housing (three bolts, one of which is an allen head in a bad location,
so it takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r), you have to move the bottom half of the air
cleaner out of the way to reach the third bolt and to do that you have
to unhook the S-duct from the intake air sensor and then unclip the top
half of the air cleaner and remove it, then the bottom half pops right
out.  

Anyway, I installed the new one and adjusted it properly and guess what!
No more noise!!!  My excitement is tempered by the fact that it is about
20 degrees warmer today than it was when it last made the noise so I
will soon see if the noise comes back in the cold.  I think, however,
that the problem may be solved.

Thanks to all,
Sean