KEN - The one place I worked we really struggled with the problem of "Shelf LIfe" of v-belts. The companies that made the belts for our suppliers, Motion Industries and another power transmission supplier in the Milw. area all agreed that we could sit on belts seven years and the belts would still give the customer good service. Only problem was how old the belts were when we got them. Every company had a different date coding system.
I had a cheap auto parts store alternator belt for a '77 Pontiac that I carried around in the trunk for 3-4 years that my Father-in-law installed for my wife one afternoon. That new belt made it about a week before it failed too. On the other extreme, I would guess the fan belt on the '51 M was replaced 40 to 45 yrs ago and it still shows no signs of cracking. The belt that amazes me is the serpentine belt on my PSD, it's 15 yrs old, round numbers has 300,000 miles and while I suppose it's technically wore out, there still are NO cracks on the ribbed side of the belt. The new replacement under the seat is over ten yrs old now because the factory belt won't fail! And a discussion over on TDS says the cooling fan can pull up to 27 HP to just turn the fan, plus whatever the water pump, 135A alternator, A/C compressor and vacuum & P/S pump take to run. I suspect that could total 40 HP at times.
On the S/G belts, I used to buy them at Farm & Fleet, but the two I have are IH belts. I like them to slip a little if the engine stops @ TDC when starting, prevents stalling the starter and it's less stress on the S/G bearings.
GERRY - I agree, I've NEVER tried to rope start or pull start a CC, which I would think only would work with a GD, not sure how a hydro would like that. After running them for what will soon be 50 yrs, I don't want to start trying that now. When the S/G belt starts throwing chunks replace it and buy another one next trip to the dealer or parts order.
