When I bought the car I noticed that the serp belt wasnt aligned on the power steering pulley. While I didnt think much about it at that time, I just stuck it back in place and went on. well now the belt squeeks a little when its warm. So I looked into it farther and found out that its the original serp belt with 175K miles on it. I bought a new belt and stuck it on, made sure it was all in the grooves properly and then started it. Now its popping a rib on the alternator and making a loud popping noise. Investigating it farther I found that the alternator pulley looks to be too far back to be aligned with the rest of the pulleys, or the power steering pulley is too far forward....or both.
Is there a reason that either of these would happen? I doubt its the original alternator but you never know until its off.
any input is appriciated
Thanks
Dan

 

you got pictures?

 

sorry I do not I can try to get some. I put the old belt back on to get home.

 

With 175k its possible one or both of those accessories has been changed and most replacements don't come with their own pulleys, you reuse the one on the car. Its possible that whoever did the work didn't align the pulleys correctly. Using the crank and idler pulleys as reference points try to determine what is out of line and in what direction then use the appropriate pulley puller/reinstaller to align them properly.

 

well I put a straight edge on the crank pulley and determined that the alternator pulley is about 5/16" of an inch back, thats about the thickness of one rib on the belt. so any ideas on getting the alternator spaced back forward? Ie never removed the alternator on one of these so could i just insert some washers behind it?

 

Ok heres some pics, the straight edge I used is flat againt the crank pulley.

 

^^^ agreed. I'd suggest taking a look from the side and sighting all the pulleys in a row to see which one is off (hopefully it's not the crank pulley . . . that wouldn't be good!). I ran into a situation with a replacement alternator once that was caused by the rebuild shop screwing up and using the wrong case. Here's some pics of what can happen. As you can see, it caused about a 1/4 inch offset in the pulley alignment.

(paying attention to the mounting surfaces relative to the pulley)

 

^^^Agree with that! I just swap to a smaller pulley on my alternator. Had to put a washer behind the pulley as well as one before puttin the nut on.

Just looking at it from the pictures it almost appeared the P/S pulley was out of sorts...but that could just be the angle. If it is the P/S....it could be possible it was put on backward.

 

ALTERNATOR is the wrong one with autozone part number 15637

 

Well that'll do it....glad you found the culprit!

 

Thanks for posting 'root cause'. More people need to do that.