well the other night on the way home from the bar i got that horrid slipping/screaming belt sound... accompanied by that lovely voltage drop to 12 volts... anyway, is replacing it absolutely necessary or can i just tweak with the tensioner and go from there?

so its slipping on the alternator??? i would think you could just tension it up a bit, but i new one would be the better idea. if its not slipping, save up your pennies because you have an alt problem. :D

try tightening it first, but you might need a new belt. the belt could be so worn that that could cause it to slip.

-Jared

the belt itself looks pretty new... but where is the tensioner on it... i see one very rusted screw pointing out to the right of the car that's screwed all the way down, that's the only one i could see or feel on the alternator.... is it somewhere else? cause the belt is just as tight as the ps belt... but i dunno how well that's functioning because i'm seeming to be getting 'tight' spots in the steering when i turn the wheel from lock to lock..

sounds like a belt slipping to me. most of the time, there is like an elbow bar that rests on the belt, that is usually your tensioener, just somehow push that more on the belt and tighten it at the same time. i always thought that was the belt tensioner, atleast.

on the z32, the altenator is the tensioner for the altenator belt. but i don't know what the tensioner is on a z31. chilton (book) should be able to tell you that.


-Jared

seems to be ok now... just hopefully won't have to use the car for a while until i can get things sorted out.. just gotta go into work tomorrow and say i quit! then make it home... maybe drive the gf around and such... ok enough babbling... i'll have another look at it tomorrow... or whenever i get the motivation