I recnetly had a v belt fail which left me stranded. I got a replacement one, installed it, and drove the car home. Within 20 or so miles, the belt was loose again. No biggie I thought, its just breaking in. So I tightened it. Another couple hundred miles later, it was super loose again. Thinking the belt was at fault, I decided to get a higher quality belt.
When removing the old belt I found that it was frayed. Upon closer inspection, I found that the pulley on the alternator was bent. This squeezed the belt as the pulley spun. This is certainly why I couldn't keep the belt tight. From the look of my new-ish belt, I was very close to another belt failure. I belive I bent the pulley when I recently replaced my clutch. I vaguely remember dropping my alternator a foot onto the ground. It must have landed on the pulley and got bent at that time.
So I removed the alternator and started looking for replacement pulley. Of course this pulley is not made anymore. A big thanks to pcarsaab from the vsaab mailing list who sent me a replacement from his cache of spare parts. Once I got the replacement pulley, I sandblasted it, painted it with some high heat spray paint, and installed it.
I have good luck with Gates XL v belts so I went out and bought a Gates XL 7350 since it was the same effective circumfrence as the Duralast belt I used last time. Either I was wrong about the length or Gates measures theirs differently than Duralast. The Gates 7350 was way too long. I went down two sizes to 7345. That belt fits but is right at the end of the alternator adjustment range. I imagine a Gates 7340 even a 7335 would be just right. As soon as my 7350 starts stretching (beyond the initial break-in) I will just have to pitch it.
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