alternator belt wearing down problem
 

Hi
Any help would be appreciated. I bough a 1987 24' formula LS a few years ago, 454/330. the engine had been changed (not sure about the hardware,brackets etc.) . my problem is that although the engine runs fine I keep wearing down alternator belts. They don't snap or spin off, they just wear down, leaving this nasty black powder all over the engine compartment. everything appears to be in alignment, at least by eye, no pulleys seem to be damaged or bent. If someone could give me the correct belt number for the boat that would be a good staring point.
Any other help would be appreciated. at my wits end with that black that black powder. that stuff is a nightmare in trying to keep the boat clean. a picture someones engine from the front would help in knowing if things are setup properly.
thanks in advance

Dennis

It takes almost no surface imperfections from corression to wear belts out immediately. Check pulleys really close.

Somebody posted on here a while back that even a little rust on the pulleys can do that. Not sure but it makes sense that it would.

Agreed. I had a little rust on two of the pulleys last summer and was experiencing the same premature wear on my belt. I wire brushed them really good and painted them with a hi-temp paint and noticed significant improvement in belt life. I am sure if I replaced the pulleys with new ones I would realize even greater belt life. Check those pulleys!!

^^What everyone else has said. Even if you have good pulleys, 1 bad belt to begin with depositing small rubber particles everywhere, will accelerate the wear of new belts. Just a small amount of that dust in the pulley grooves will cause friction>heat>premature belt failure. Make sure they are clean.

Pulley alignment is not an eye ball thing. Just 3/16" is enough to do this. My first boat was doing the same thing and it was alignment prob. Put a shim behind the alt pulley and corrected it. The pulleys looked straight to the eye but using a straight edge made it clear that the pulleys were running off from each other.

Good luck