last summer my alt. went sour on me so i went down to napa and bought a new one. considering the task at hand it was extremely hard to get in and out of the engine bay (if i remember right because of a coolant hose) anyways two weeks ago i heard what sounded like a loose fanbelt, i looked down at my charge gauge and noticed i was only getting 8 volts. after inspection i came to the concusion that the female threaded part of the alternator that allows it to adjust the belt tension was stripped. as a quick fix because i didnt want to go through the trouble of getting it out again i put a bolt of a smaller diameter threw the hole and tightened it down. that worked for a while, but today ive decided to go through the trouble of getting it out and returning it to napa. now i notice that even when the alternator is on the very outside of that adjusting bar (attached to the engine block) the belt is still lose. the belts were replace about 15 - 20k miles ago when i put the new engine in. so my question is can a belt stretch out that quickly?

also if someone knows a trick to get that lil bastard out of an 83 toyota pickup with 22r that would be helpfull as well. last time i just banged and pulled till it eventually poped out, it was a real pain in my ass.

 

Did you buy a good quality belt ?, I try to use Gates belts when i can find them, there a good quality belt. im sure there are cheap belts that don`t last as long as others. as far as getting your alternator out easier, i can`t help you there because ive never had to remove mine.

 

ok well i ended up not taking it back to napa just putting in a new bolt and tightening her down. correcting my last post it wasnt a radiator hose that is in the way its a powersteering hose mostly and then the radiator is somewhat in the way as well. its working ok now for the time being.