It's hard for me to let go of my single-engine, single-alternator mentality.
I read "Threw the belt again after twenty minutes in IMC..." and I'm
immediately thinking what is he thinking going back into IMC until that
problem is solved for sure? I forget that you carry around a spare.

Again, I'm no A&P but I agree with the thought you expressed in one of your
earlier posts. The question in my mind would be, "What's changed?" Before
tearing the engine apart, I sure would make sure that it isn't just a washer
put back on the wrong side of a bracket or a bent bracket causing the
Alternator to be mis-aligned.

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Travis
Lake N3094P
PWK
"Viperdoc" wrote in message
...
Threw the belt again after twenty minutes in IMC on the way to the
avionics shop. Destination was VMC, so elected to continue rather than
turn around or land, and the other alternator was handling the load
easily.

Avionics guy fixed the radar (took three guys around 30 minutes). Belt
replaced.

Flew 1.5 hours back- no problems. After return I tightened belt again, and
then flew another 1.6 hours doing LNAV/VNAV approaches in IMC (much
smoother than ILS).

Checked belt again, which appeared tight. So, last belt has now gone over
three hours, where the others have all thrown in less than 30 minutes.

What gives- can a new belt stretch so much that it gets thrown that
easily, or should I still suspect that the engine is detuned and has a
sticking counterweight?

The engine shop quoted a cost of over $3,000 as a minimum to change the
counterweight bearings, plus any costs associated with finding something
wrong with the cylinders.