Belt Breaks every 3 months

[will1976]

Hi,

The car is a 91 cutlass wagon with the 3.3 6 cylinder. The compressor for the ac went out so I removed that and went to a smaller belt. The problem started when my water pump went out. I replaced the pump and the belt and that worked about 3 months. The belt appears to be chewed up on the inside edge closest to the engine. The belt does not squeal at all. I am using the duralast belt from autozone. Anyone else had or having similar trouble?

Thanks, William

[Greenblurr93]

Could the Pulley be warped/ installed crooked??

[XGamesJ6]

when the belt is on, start the car, and get a light, and just kind of watch it, maybe do it outside with some sunlight, always good...look at all the seperate pullys, see if maybe it's just off somewhere, look from different angles and really pay close attention to each pulley, you might figure something out.

another thing i was thinking, but cant be sure of, is maybe the belt tensioner is holding the belt too tight now, because it doesnt have to put all that tension on the compressor, so it's straining the smaller belt around all those other ones that dont require much tension.

just a few thoughts

[will1976]

I will take a look at the pulleys today to see if they are missaligned warped. I like the idea about the tension pulley being too strong. Can you adjust the tension pulley at all? Or mabey I could buy a slightly larger belt....

Thanks for the help guys, William.

[Greenblurr93]

try and figure out whats wrong first... most tensioners you can manually adjust

[will1976]

The pulleys are lined up correctly it appears. I noticed the belt tensioner pulley is cracking and breaking down on the wheels surface. I have not changed a tension pulley before are they much trouble?

[Greenblurr93]

not usually. if its a spring loaded pulley, they can be a pain sometimes.

[XGamesJ6]

im not sure how it is to replace it on your car, it could be as easy as taking the old one off, and bolting the new one on. or require you to have to set the tension then bolt it in, which could be difficult. I was looking around on autozone.com you can also buy just the pulley, not the entire tensioner assembly. It's a whole lot cheaper. If i recall the pulley for you car was around $100 but i could be wrong...but the pulley could be from 20-40 or so.
hopefully you'll get this issue resolved

[will1976]

It is a spring loaded tension pulley. Do you have to take off the entire tensioner assembly to remove the pulley or can you break that difficult nut with a socket?