Okay, thanks in advance.

My batteries have been draining over a period of a few days (starts over the span of the battery life), and my first hunch was somethings draining the battery, but really I noticed today when I ran my Blazer with no battery hooked up, that my Alternator isn't doing so good. My lights all flicker and my instrument panel flickers, so I realized, hey my belt is too loose. Could the belt being loose cause the alternator to not put out what it should be and thus my battery isn't necessarily draining, but not recharging? I just want to know if that is a strong possibility. I just bought a new battery today with a warranty and I am unhooking it when I'm not using the truck just in case. Also the alternator is fairly new, and my dad installed it and the belt a while ago, and he doesn't really know what the hell he is doing haha.

Again thanks.

 

If the belt was slipping, you should hear a squeal... How tight does your belt feel?

 

It feels pretty loose, not tight at all. Like theres a good maybe 1.5inches of play in some parts...

It does squeal sometimes when it is first put in gear and drives for a few minutes.

 

First off.. an inch and a halfof deflection is way too much, second, are you sure it's the right belt? Take it off and lay it in the groove of the alternator pulley then when pushing it down take a flashlight and see ifit's touching the bottom of the groove. V belts should only drive on the sidesof the groove, if it bottoms out it's either the wrong belt or the pulley is worn. You say it's a new alt. so if all is fine with the fit do the same check on the driver pulley. If the bottom of the groove is shiny that's the first sign of something wrong. As for belt tension..find the center of the belt between the driver and driven pulleys and press down, with approx. 5 lbs. pressure there should be about 1/4" of deflection, any tighter and you will burn out the alt. bearings. If you don't have enough alternator movement to get it that tight go to the next shorter belt.

 

My belt isdeff the wrong length, and it doesnt even fit the routing for "With A/C" thanks to my dad buying te wrong size a while back. I also found that the belt tensioner itself, is absolutely seized. The spring, doesnt budge at all when installed, and the pulley bearings are locked up. So when I gt the cash I'll replace the belt and tensioner, and let you guys know whats up. I just want to make sure my battery is recharging while it's running. I tried looking for a drain on the battery with this test light I bought, and I guess im real dumb because i couldnt get it to light up at all on anything but connecting it to the batterys negative and positive terminals...

 

One quick and easy way to check is make sure everything in the truck that draws power is turned off, ie: doors closed, all lights off, pull the fuse on your stereo, etc. Then find a dark place and pull the neg. batt.cable off..then just touch the cable end to the batt. post, if you see a spark there is something drawing power. The size of the spark will indicate the severity of the drain. Not a fool-proof way to diagnose but will let you know if there's a problem or not.

 

The draw is my alternator, I did some tests with a test light, the only thing drawing power ismy ECM obviously, and my alternator. Woohoo more crap to get replaced.