i have no idea why, but my alternator belt flew off again!!! im getting tired of it i barely made it home tonight, by like 2 streets. But anyway every time I put a belt on, there always seems to be quite a bit of play and i think thats the reason the belt keeps getting thrown. the power steering / AC belt is perfectly fine, but is there something i forgot to do to make the alternator belt tighter? there is like a half inch of play or more....

should be no play.

are you getting the right belt? i noticed your sig said you had a udp
edit lol and the obvious...what blizare said in the pits....but i figured you would have tighten the hell outta that

in addition to what was said in the pits...you dont need a prybar to tighten anything. shit, im 5'7" and weight 115, its not that hard to put tension on the alt with your hand.

There shouldn't be any prying involved at all. Its hard to see, but there is a bolt that lets you tighten or loosen the alternator. Its on the alternator bracket against the firewall.


95 Eclipse RS : 5 speed
15.7 @ 87.9mph
Jeep TB writeup - http://www.dimensia.com:81/jimbo/JeepTBfor2gnt.html

Originally posted by MetalJim
There shouldn't be any prying involved at all. Its hard to see, but there is a bolt that lets you tighten or loosen the alternator. Its on the alternator bracket against the firewall.

^^^ ya what he said. there's 3 bolts that lock the alternator in place. one facing the firewall. another on the top facing the pass. side. and another on the bottom of the alt facing the drivers side. the bottom one is the bolt that the whole alt pivots around. the top one facing the passenger side is just to lock it into place. the top one facing the fire wall is for adjustment. just loosen up the bolts then keep turning the adjustment bolt CCW until everythings tight. then just tighten the other bolts.

Also, check the tension at the longest distance between two pulleys on the Alt. You should have no more than 1/2" deflection for proper tension. Check the alignment of the pulleys on that one. If one of them is off even a little it can and usually will cause the belt to jump off. Run a string from pulley to pulley and look to see that it cuts across both sides of the pulley. It should rest on both sides. if not then your alignment is off and you need to correct that. Maybe your UDP isn't fully seated? If I can help let me know?

Yeah, Don't pry on it. The bolt on the very back (Alt bracket) will tention the whole alternator. Then lock it in place with the bolt on the side of the bracket.

Mine has been missing that adjustment bolt since I bought it.

HAHAHA the bolt on the back of my alternator facing the firewall (tensioner bolt?) was all the way loose..... so i tightened it, and everything else, and it is tight again, ill see if it stays for a couple days, but thank you everyone who replied!