Lately, I can't seem to keep the belts tight on my alternator. I have to retighten them about every 3 days. This is getting very old very fast. I recently replaced the belts and all the accessory mount bushings in the alternator and top bracket, but this isn't helping much.

I have a belt tensioner that came from a later model 240 and would like to install it on my car (1980 242, B21 which never had a belt tensioner for the alternator) but I don't know how this tensioner goes onto the alterntor. The tensioner I have is simply a small metal block with a hole of roughly 9mm diameter through the face of it, and a fairly long bolt (8mm dia by 75mm long?)that is threaded throught the side of the block at 90 degrees from the face with the hole.

Does anybody have a picture of how this tensioner goes, or a link to a picture, or a really good text explanation of how it installs? I've searched the archives here, and also google-searched for over an hour with no luck. I'm tired of hearing the squealing and smelling the rubber burning as the belts slip on the pulleys, not to mention the beating my battery is taking from not getting properly recharged...

Billy McCaskill
billy242
1980 242DL with lots of GT and IPD stuff