300Tdi - alignment of a/c belt pulleys

[TuffRR]

Recently the a/c belt snapped and looked to be well worn on one side. I purchased a replacement belt and fitted. When doing so i noticed that the pulley on the a/c compressor and the bottom pulley lined up but the middle pulley which is on the crank (from memory) was too far rearward a few mm's.
This caused the belt not to sit in the channel but rather run along the frontmost raised edge of the pulley which would have caused the breakage the first time around i believe.

I could not find any provision to adjust the alignment of any of the pulleys so am unsure how they could be out of alignment. :?:

[sheff]

Tuff RR. I can see what you mean, the small grooved idler pulley being out of alignment with the A/C pulley and crankshaft. Looking at mine (which is all perfectly aligned) I would suggest that, a/ the bearing is shot and allowing the grooved pulley to run off, or, b/ the bearing was replaced with an incorrect type putting the pulley assembly out of alignment.
Shouldnt be a difficult job to sort out.
sheff

[DaveS3]

Glenn,

This happened to a mates 3.9, and it was a dead bearing. I threw the belt off, but he sut the car down and it didn't get caught on anything 8O

If not bearings, Can you space it out at all?

Dave.

[TuffRR]

Thanks guys.

I'll check out the bearing first.