I have carped about this a'plenty but never get any discussion going about
it, so if anyone has info on this I would like to know it.  My 82 diesel
uses 9.5mm belts but only 10mm are available in this country as far as I can
tell.  They are not correct for the pulleys and the manufacturers seem to
purposely obfuscate the sizes with their part numbers, so you won't be able
to figure it out.

--
Alan Felder
Austin TX
82 Diesel Westy

On Wed, Aug 24, 2011 at 9:36 PM, Mike Riley <mkriley@fuse.net> wrote:

> a word of warning
> most belts sold for replacement at a flaps are the wrong size and sit too
> high in the groove.
> they Do NOT grip at an acceptable amount of tension. you need the proper
> metric width belt and put it on and tension until it does not squeal. This
> occurs at a lower tension that the fatter belt commonly sold.
> I feel that reefing on the alternator with crowbars causes the litany of
> broken  alternator mounts and bad alternator and water pump bearings. the
> point is to get it to work properly  and not damage anything not have it
> conform to some arbitrary setting.BTW the bently assumes that the proper
>  width belt is used.
> mike
>