(FIXED) 33 Alternator Belt & Low beam headlight problem!

[Ben33]

Hi Guys,

I've recently purchased an 1985 33 4x4 wagon with my Dad. What an great little car!  

Among the variety of little things to fix up is to change the Alternator belt as the old one had worn through...

However, the Dayco 15345 (Bosch 11a0875 equivalent) belt (supposedly the correct 33 belt) I've purchased is slightly bigger than the belt I took off and as a result it is impossible to get enough tension...

I'm wondering what belts people have used on the 33 and where in Melbourne I could get one.

Thanks,
Ben

[philpot]

Super Cheap Auto or any parts shop. Bosch 11A0865. The 865 is the length in mm.  11 A is the type/angle/pitch of the belt. Dayco or any good manufacturer would make a belt in this size. Should be no probs getting in getting one quite cheap. Yes, discovered the same thing, with the longer belt the alternator fouls the base of the twin carby air filter box. 865 should do the trick but you can always try a 850 too, though I 'v found them harder to tension due to being smaller again. OH! Special Trick!! Slacken off the bracket(opposite the hinge bolt side) at the base( on the engine)  with a 13mm ring spanner as this needs to move when tensioning belt, otherwise you could be coming up against the bracket inner slot!!! And remember to tighten this at the end, after the other two bolts.  Good Luck!

[Ben33]

Fantastic! That makes a lot of sense. I'll pick up a 865 tomorrow and give that a go.

Thanks again, really apreciate the advise 

[Ben33]

865 belt fitted, much better  Again, thanks.

Tomorrows job, fixing the lack of low beam headlights (highbeam and parkers work)...

[philpot]

Fuses? Lost a rhs low beam few weeks back. Tried new globes, no joy. Third fuse from front in lower (supplemental) fuse box had a hairline crack. Couldn't see it till took it out and it broke! Bullet fuses are notorious for doing this, fracturing without being obvious...one plus is they're pretty cheap. If all are old i'd replace the lot. Just to be sure. Relay may be the other cuplrit (if it's not the globes in the first place!)

[Ben33]

Well Dad and I spent the day chasing this... We kept hitting brick walls and spent hours chasing things with the multi meter... Its not the fuses... Its not the bulbs... Its not the switch... We don't think it is the relay as it seems to activate but we're not writing that one off yet until we try a replacement. Hmm, at the moment we've really dodgily wired it so the low beams active with the parkers as a very temporary solution...

Going by the multimeter it seems that there is quite a large resitance somewhere just before the relay but we just can't find it... Hmm, any other ideas of what we could look at?

Thanks again for your help!

[Andrew Bose]

Make sure you use ceramic fuses as the plastic one tend to shrink and lose contact even if they have continuity, also make sure the earth/s from the fuse box is good as my 1.7ie had a few issues until I replaced a few dodgy terminals. Also the relay can be an issue on these, I had to pull mine apart and clean it carefully and spray it it with contact cleaner, remember this is a double relay in one box. This solved my problem of losing the low beam over bumps intermittantly. I also used a sealer (I think the wurth one is Contact OS) for wires and this has been reliable for 5 years in an everyday driver with no garage. Good luck.
Andrew

[Ben33]

Problem solved!  :) Dad managed to find a relay which wasn't actually on the wiring diagram in the workshop manual... The photos below tell the story and why we had a high resistance to earth before the red boxed relay... With the relay now replaced everything is working perfectly! Next step on the lighting is to make it a little more efficent with some decent globes and replacing the drivers side lens and glass.

Thanks everyone for your help :)