The Squeal Deal

I have a ’74 Fury with
a 400-4 and A/C. Recently, I changed the
alternator and compressor belts, and now
they squeal. I know you have a fix!

Your ’74 used two belts in tandem to
drive the alternator and compressor. Back
in the day, Mopar replacements were a
matched pair, the lengths were identical.
Today, you must ensure that the belts you
install are from the same lot. Check the
code numbers on the belts to insure a
matched set. If they aren’t identical, the
shorter one will take most of the load,
and it will squeal.
Tension is also critical. Chrysler provided
two tension-checking methods. One
involved a belt-slack gauge, the second,
more practical, simply had you measure
the torque on the item being adjusted. In
your case, there’s no way to tighten the
alternator accurately without the factory
tool, C-3841A. Luckily, a Mopar guy by the
name of Brian Kapral is making a betterthan-
OEM repro of the original, contact
him at resq302@aol.com. Once you have
the tool (see photo, above right), you can
simply snap your torque wrench in and
set the tension to specs, in your case: 120
ft.-lbs. for new belts, or 80 if used.