my 355 is destroying my alternator belts.HELP

[Minion1186]

Just recently been driving my 86 cutlass for the first time in about 10 months. I have a problem with my alternator belt/p/s belt. The alternator belts are getting destroyed, basically ripping them apart and then snapping, and right after that the p/s belt starts twisting. What is this problem? i have a smaller alternator pulley, small water pump pulley and a large crank pulley with deep grooves. Do i need a larger alternator pulley to slow the belt down or should i have less tension on the belt?

 

[79loserbluebu]

I'd start by checking all of your pulleys for front to back play. Do you have headers? If the right spacer isn't used with them, they can destroy belts or make them squeal

 

[axisg]

sounds like a pully alignment issue. I have to run a 1/4 spacer on the front of my alternator to twist it so the belts run true.

 

[Minion1186]

as it turns out, the alternator belt needs to be tightened a whole lot more than it was. I thought it was something else but its just tightening it more solves the problem.

 

[carmangary]

Not sure what you got but on my car I can swap which pulley grooves the alternator and power steering belts are in. I did this once by accident. The power steering belt aligned just fine when I did that but the alternator belt ended up being offset by the width of the pulley groove. It wasn't apparent looking at it from the from but it was when looking at it from the side.