The fan belt gave out tonight (9:45pm) on the way home. I didn't want to get towed from the side of the road, so I limped along another 1/4 mile to the gas station that I knew would be closed (this is the one next to the Napa store). I couldn't believe it when I saw Rudy, the store owner in the alley wiping down his antique car. He reopened the store and sold me a new belt. Now I'm home.... :D

The belt was destroyed by the vacuum pump not being aligned properly. I had the alternator/vac. pump bracket off about 3 weeks ago, and it hasn't sit right since....

Are there spacers that belong behind that bracket? washers, shims etc.?:help:

I lost the pulley on my vac pump a few weeks ago. The pulley itself was fractured around the center. Yours could be on it's way out.

Can someone say Turbomaster?
Not sure what might be going wrong to cause the belts to self destroy but I'd undo what I'd done and redone it again

The fan belt gave out tonight (9:45pm) on the way home. I didn't want to get towed from the side of the road, so I limped along another 1/4 mile to the gas station that I knew would be closed (this is the one next to the Napa store). I couldn't believe it when I saw Rudy, the store owner in the alley wiping down his antique car. He reopened the store and sold me a new belt. Now I'm home.... :D

The belt was destroyed by the vacuum pump not being aligned properly. I had the alternator/vac. pump bracket off about 3 weeks ago, and it hasn't sit right since....

Are there spacers that belong behind that bracket? washers, shims etc.?:help:

I put the bracket behind the vac pump on wrong and it did the same.

I'm having the same issue with belts on my new engine. The drive setup I have was in a box of parts with a engine I bought. Do these serpentine belt drives use any spacers on the vaccum pump or the power steering pump to make things line up?

No, you just have to have it on right.

There's no 'spacers', but brackets are designed to be stacked in a certain order to get all the pulleys aligned properly. If you're missing one, or got one behind the wrong bolt, that will cause a misalignment.

There's no 'spacers', but brackets are designed to be stacked in a certain order to get all the pulleys aligned properly. If you're missing one, or got one behind the wrong bolt, that will cause a misalignment.

say by about 1/8"??

I'll second that, bowtie! My vacuum pump was on its way out recently and someone suggested that since I already had a turbo-master, to just remove the pump and be done with it.

I took the advice, got a slightly shorter belt and will never worry about this vacuum pump crapping out again.

SnowDrift

say by about 1/8"??
I don't know what your referring to?

The brackets I'm talking about are about 3/8" thick or more, enough to make a difference.

When I had the bracket on wrong it was only 1/8" out of alignment and would eat belts nonstop (3 of them) 'till I fixed it.

I don't know what your referring to?

The brackets I'm talking about are about 3/8" thick or more, enough to make a difference.

that's how far off the belt alignment is on my vac pump pulley....1/8". It's just enough where the edge of the belt rides up on the lip of the pulley.

on the water pump are the bolts that hold the brackets on for the power steering and vaccum pump studs or bolts? My stuff I'm using was in a box and I put it back together the way my 6.2 with v-belts is.

on my truck, the vacuum pump and alternator are on the same bracket which mounts on top of the water pump. when I had the water pump off, I did not have to touch the power steering pump. In my case, the vacuum pump/alternator bracket is mounted on studs at the water pump and bolts where it goes into the block

thanks I put mine together with the studs and the brackets for the a/c&vaccum pump over the studs. On the ps&alternator side I done it the same way. I believe I may have the wrong ac pump on it now after some measuring.

what year is your vehicle? mine's a '96. I've got ac and ps on the driver's side and vac pump and alternator on the same bracket (over water pump) on passenger side. Any chance all the pieces fit in that configuration?

I think the drive setup I'm using is off of a 91-93 model 6.2. I believe my problem is in the a/c compressor. I have my 6.5 in a 80 model dually crewcab with a nv4500 in it.

Never had a good experience with Gates or Dayco belts on the GM diesels. Confirmed with a former belt engineer from one of those companies that the OEM belts greatly exceed the life of Gates or Daycos. The Ford and GM OEM belts are really built well. The only aftermarket brand I've heard good words about are Goodyears.

I had one of the Dayco's fly apart on my way to work one day, the Gates versions had premature cracks in them, both less than 15k miles.

Currently I have over 50k on an OEM GM belt and it still doesn't have cracks in it, but I will be replacing it soon for PM.

I agree - the pulleys and hardware need to be right first, but I would be very careful with your belt choice.

UPDATE! - GM just switch suppliers and now sells Daycos under the same part number. They are cheaper, thinner and I am quite disappointed with what they did. Seems Goodyear is going to be my next belt.

The vac pump pulley is a press on type if you need a little either direction it should not be that big o deal to move it.