Fellow Listers,
During the process of restoring my '72 TR6 I purchased a new fan belt. The book
says that it should be 1/2" wide according to my Serial no. CC76363L. I went to
install it and I realized that the crankshaft pulley has a 3/8" groove while the
water pump and alternator have 1/2" grooves. I checked the old belt and it is
actually 3/8" wide. I've been the owner of the car since 1979 and I have never
replaced either the water pump or alternator and they appear to be original
equipment. Since this is an early '72, I've found that there are several
components which were actually of '71 vintage such as the vapor recovery system,
dash knobs, etc. I suppose that they were trying to use up the old stock of
parts while they were building this one which seems ok.
The 3/8" belt may not look right but I've never had a belt failure. I'm pretty
sure that I shouldn't use the 1/2" belt because it clearly doesn't fit the
crankshaft pulley, but will the 3/8" belt work for the water pump and the
alternator? I guess I could change everything over to 3/8" or 1/2", but its
becoming hard to find these pulleys. Is the 3/8" system better than the 1/2", or
does it really matter? I'm tempted to leave it as is and use a 3/8" belt. If I
were to make everything consistent I would probably opt to change the crankshaft
pulley to 1/2" just because bigger is better.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Bob Kraeuter
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