legacycentral bbs

The alternator/power steering belt on my 1990 Legacy LS seems to break quite often. I thus far have had to replace it 4 times and the car only has 55,000mi on it. I replaced the power steering pump recently because it seemed to be functioning poorly. Currently the car is Iowa having a good bit of repair work done after I was in a wreck. I just wanted know if anyone had any ideas as to why this is happening, and what can be done to correct it.

Thanks,
Daniel

does it have the correct amount of tension when you finish installing it?

Have you removed your AC? How is the belt positioned on the pullies? I know I've sheared a belt once by having a minute edge of one of the lines(?) off the cam(? the big one) sprocket, and that made it go bang.

Well as far as tension goes, I usually leave about 1/2 to 3/4in of flex on the longest gap between pulleys. I dont have the car immediately available, so i cant really check the pulley alignment, but I'll have the man who is woking on it take a look. Also, seeing as it is a rather old car, would the alternator possibly going bad have an impact on this situation? When I get it back I plan on purchasing a new alt. because I have somewhat of a passion for car electronics.

One more thing to check for: are all the pulleys straight? if they are bent, they will seem to "wobble" when the engine is running and that could add to the wear of the belt. . ..