Altenator belt squeeking!!! Please help!!!

After I drive the maverick, 1972 automatic on the floor 250 ci with power steering, my alternator belt starts to squeek about an hour to two hours after I tighten it. It seems as though the swivel bolt, regardless of how much a friend and I tighten it, the belt becomes loose again after driving around for a while. How could make the bolt stay in place or am I doing something completely wrong??? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Just recommendation can go a long way...

 

How old is the belt? How much tension are you putting on it when you try to tighten it? Are the alternator threads stripped out where the bolt goes? this will cause it to loosen up and slack the belt. If the belt is old it may be stretching when you tension it and will allways loosen back up till it finally breakes. Its also possible the alignment is off between the alt pulley and the crank pulley.

 

The belt is about 2 weeks old. We tightened it last time to the point where we were concerned that we over tightened it. And i'm not sure if the alternator bolt is stripped out. I will check that and get back to you. Keep those comments coming please!!! The more I learn, the better chance I have of fixing it. It is my daily driver now, as of yesterday, so i'm truly looking for lots of info on this so I can fix it tomorrow.

 

either put on a new bolt or put in some washers to get it off the stripped out thread. that is where i would start.

 

Ok. I will try that, it does definantly make sense. Also, should the belt be in the groove of the pulley closest to the alternator, or the one further away?

 

Whichever pulley is directly inline with the crank pulley. You want it dead straight without any angle to it.

 

Ok good! That is the first elimination that I can make! Onward and upward my good soldiers!

 

Keep us posted on any further developments.

 

what brand belt are you using? i like the...Cog...type.

...

 

go to napa and buy a gates belt problem solved.

The cheaper brand belts you get nowdays are garbage and stretch when they get hot.

 

I'm using a duralast brand belt, so I think I will try a gates belt and work with the bolt to see what happens... I will keep everyone posted for sure!!! And keep those ideas coming, the more the merrier!

 

Ok so what I think we have a case of here is eithier a faulty belt or the wrong size belt, to big. The alternator appears as though it has not moved and is pushed as far down as it can go, so it appears the belt just keeps stretching. So I'm off to Napa to get a better, maybe slightly smaller belt. I will let you know how that works out. I'm going to run it all over town and on the interstate to make sure it's good to go!

 

Be sure not to over tighten belt. It pulls on the alt and puts too much pressure on the bearing and it will go out. Be sure belt fits in pulley grooves correctly and length is right. If keeper bolt is stripped I have seen people put in a longer bolt and put a nut on the other end, it's a quick and temp fix.

 

You shoould also make sure to loosen both bolts to adjust it the be sure to tighten both bolts when you adjust it. New belts (especially good ones) can be a bit stiff at first but if the pulleys are not glazed and you adjust it properly it should hold the adjustment for a long time.
Problems to look for are glazed pulleys, out-of-round pulleys, misalignment, and proper belt/pulley size.

 

I never had any luck with the dayco cog belts. Always slip, especially when it's cold out. Most I've ever got out of one was 6,000 miles before it started slipping so bad my alternator quit charging. I drove 35 miles home from work that day with it slipping the whole way, shut the car off. Went out a couple of hours later to change it, and when I touched it, it was like plastic and I literally just broke it off. I sanded the pulleys and put a GoodYear Gatorback belt on. That was 13,000 miles ago, and I haven't touched it since, belt still working great. Never tried a gates belt. Wish there was an easy way to convert these 6's over to serpentine.