Howdy all.

On a 350 mile drive, my AC belt came off yet again. I'll start back at the last time it came off:

I rarely use my AC, since where I live it rarely reaches 75F.

Last year, I drove down to areas where it reaches 100F and it was 95, so I used my AC. It worked as usual (cool, not really that cold) for about half an hour and then slowly worked less and less well and then not at all.
When I arrived, I checked and found that the belt had somehow turned sideways in its channel and was pretty well messed up and warped and so on. So, I replaced it with a new one. I replaced the belt during my trip, and, if I remember right, the AC worked normally on the way home.

I recently replaced my Power steering belt, and in the process had to remove and re-tension my AC belt in the process, so I'm sure it's correct.

Today, I drove basically the same drive and basically the same thing happened. The belt vanished instead this time (maybe it's on my splash pan).

My AC used to have a habit of working for about 30 minutes, then the fan would eventually seem slow down (maybe the vents were opening or something due to low vacuum) and I'd have to turn it off, wait a minute, then turn it back on. This was with an old crummy engine that had seen better days and eventually re-cracked a repaired block.

I've replaced the engine and I wonder if the "new" harmonic balancer on this engine is somehow damaging the belts. The engine/balancer is from a 94 940.


Could this be a sign of a bad compressor or a system that needs new oil? I'm sure a drain, replacement of the orifice tube, and all the o-rings would do it a lot of good, but it's not much of a priority right now. I do use the defrost occasionally, so the system got some exercise (my car runs the AC when it's set to defrost).

Any thoughts or educated guesses would be appreciated. I'll make sure the compressor isn't seized (god forbid) and then go from there. The belt I used was a diehard or something "gatorback" belt. I used to use top cogs, but went for a local option.


Eventually, I'd love to figure out an alternate belt routing to get the PS pump and water pump off of the same belt. I'd rather run the alternator and water pump together.
Is there an alternate routing that does this? Or an alternate routing that would allow using 2 belts to the AC compressor? Is that how it's supposed to be set up? I think my belt routing diagram is gone.

Cheers