decent alternator belt

yoda

yoda

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I am trying to find a decent hard wearing alternator belt because my Vetus M3.10 seems to eat them for breakfast (yes it's all aligned etc). I have read that Gates Green Stripe is the thing to go for but can't find a UK supplier. Has anybody got any other suggestions for decent quality hard wearing belts that I could try preferably without spending £20 on a belt from Vetus.

thanks

Yoda
 
Rusty pulleys?

yoda said:
I am trying to find a decent hard wearing alternator belt because my Vetus M3.10 seems to eat them for breakfast (yes it's all aligned etc). I have read that Gates Green Stripe is the thing to go for but can't find a UK supplier. Has anybody got any other suggestions for decent quality hard wearing belts that I could try preferably without spending £20 on a belt from Vetus.

thanks

Yoda
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Have you checked for rust on the pulleys. My engine went through belts at a great rate, life time was in the order of 20 hours and a pile of black dust in the bilges. Turned out that one of the pulleys was very rusty. Polished it up and problem solved.

J.
 
Jcorstorphine said:
Have you checked for rust on the pulleys. My engine went through belts at a great rate, life time was in the order of 20 hours and a pile of black dust in the bilges. Turned out that one of the pulleys was very rusty. Polished it up and problem solved.

J.
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Fairly sure that is not the problem but will check anyway. Thanks.

Yoda
 
yoda said:
I am trying to find a decent hard wearing alternator belt because my Vetus M3.10 seems to eat them for breakfast (yes it's all aligned etc). I have read that Gates Green Stripe is the thing to go for but can't find a UK supplier. Has anybody got any other suggestions for decent quality hard wearing belts that I could try preferably without spending £20 on a belt from Vetus.

thanks

Yoda
Click to expand...

http://www.beltingonline.com/
 
It took me ages to find suitable long lasting belts for my engine as it's a non standard configuration.
In my search, one thing that I learnt was that the two letters on the end of the length number indicate whether the length is an inside or outside length.

Li - inside length
La - outside length
 
Mine's non-standard as well - when I had installed the new alternator, I put a length of string round all the pulleys, then took that to Halfords as a guide - a couple of different sizes looked about right, so I bought them both, selected the one that fitted best, then took the other one back and exchanged it for the type that fitted, so I'd have a spare.
 
www.rswww.com are not the cheapest place to buy belts, but stock a range.

It helps to idle the engine a bit faster, the alternator is trying to generate a certain power, so give it more revs and it will take less torque, i.e. less load on the belt.
 
I would certainly follow earlier advice to check for rusty pulleys. My 2GM20 chewed belts in a few hours due to this. It's not easy to spot when the inside of the vee is burnished and blackened by the belt.
 
Change to polyvee

yoda said:
I am trying to find a decent hard wearing alternator belt because my Vetus M3.10 seems to eat them for breakfast (yes it's all aligned etc). I have read that Gates Green Stripe is the thing to go for but can't find a UK supplier. Has anybody got any other suggestions for decent quality hard wearing belts that I could try preferably without spending £20 on a belt from Vetus.

thanks

Yoda
Click to expand...

I tried aligning, different brands of belt etc. Still loads of black dust. I don't think there is a magic solution using Vbelts.

Finally bit the bullet and changed the pulleys from V to poly-V (upgraded from 40A to 70A alternator at the same time).

Now that was magic - no more black dust and marginally quieter too.

I seem to remember someone writing that because boat batteries get lower on charge than car batteries the belts have to work much harder and that V-belts aren't up to it. Someone else said that a smart regulator that cuts in the load progressively can help - I had my doubts about that because I thought a smart regulator made the alternator work even harder during bulk charge.

Anyway for me the polyvee belts were the solution - obviously a bit more expensive than just a belt change (even without upgrading the alternator) but not too exorbitant.

This was on a Beta BD722 BTW.
 
Go for a Gates green line/stripe belt.

They are fantastic, pre stretched, very hard wearing and good grip.

Our port engine alternator belt failed just over 5 years ago, replaced with a gates, now done 15,000 hours and no sign of a problem.

I came across them some years ago when I fitted a 240 volt oil cooled generator on a large compactor, the original belts lasted around 10 minutes, we then tried several brands including matched pairs (Twin belt pulley), all failed within hours, I started for a 4 belt pulley system as a fix, when someone said have you tried a gates geen line belt set.

That set of belts was still on that compactor 4 years later without a problem other than the hole in the side of the block when a piston failed.

From that on if any belt on any machine failed I had it replaced with a gates.

This includes the boat and our vehicles.

No connection, just a very happy customer.

Good luck and fair winds.
 
yoda said:
I am trying to find a decent hard wearing alternator belt because my Vetus M3.10 seems to eat them for breakfast (yes it's all aligned etc). I have read that Gates Green Stripe is the thing to go for but can't find a UK supplier. Has anybody got any other suggestions for decent quality hard wearing belts that I could try preferably without spending £20 on a belt from Vetus.

thanks

Yoda
Click to expand...

Yes. First establish the correct size / profile of your belt. Beware there are two very similar sizes, the 13mm and the half inch and they dont mix. Thats what caused lots of wear on my Yanmar belts until I found that standard automotive were one size and Yanmar was the other. The auto was half inch which was causing it to bottom in the pulley rather than grip on the sides and then slip with high wear rates.

So best step is probably to buy the correct spare parts belt this one time and measure it carefully. The you will be able to buy alternative belts to the correct size from Fenner Power Transmissions.
 
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