Chrysler Repair: 3.3L serpentine belt tensioner, alternator pulley, alternator brackets

Question
Hi Roland,
(I asked Kevin on this yesterday but he has not gotten back to me yet and I would like to get this back together tonight.)
99 Voyager, 3.3L engine (w A/C).

Had not replaced serpentine belts before this weekend so I have had a learning experience in terms of tools and "how to".

I don't know how to judge "ok" cracks and "bad" cracks in a serpentine belt, but decided to replace the belt to be on the safe side.

When I tried to remove the old belt, I discovered the tensioner was frozen. I got a new tensioner (Dayco). Internet searching finally gave me the under the car process for getting to the mounting nut. Under the car is very difficult for me so I first tried to remove the alternator and get at things from the top. In that process I had the horizontal bracket removed and some bolts for the vertical bracket loosened. I could not figure out how to get the alternator out of the car and was unable to get to the nut from the top because the alternator and some pipe on the manifold were in the way so I put all that back together.

After a great deal of frustration, I finally managed to get the part replaced working from the bottom. There was only dust on the mounting area, which I wiped off. I got everything back together and ran the engine.

The belt runs at the very inside (engine) edge of the pulley on the tensioner. The old pulley (and the pulley on my other 3.3L engine which I had just done earlier)show the belt running a tiny bit away from that edge.

At that point I didn't know if the Dayco tensioner improvements involved having the belt in a slightly different position or if the fiddling I had done with the alternator brackets shifted the belt position slightly. I would like to shift the belt path on the tensioner pulley a little bit to the fender side of the car. Last night I tried prying on the horizontal bracket a little bit but that didn't do it.

The alternator pulley is a long ways from the large pulley at the bottom of the belt path, so I thought maybe the belt path could shift a little without fraying the belt. Would it be ok to put 1 washer (maybe lock washer) between the horizontal and vertical alternator brackets - 1 washer on each of the 3 bolts that go through those parts? In the hope that that would get a small bit of movement in the belt position?

Thank you.  

Answer
Hi John,
Thanks for the detailed description of the history. While I haven't personally worked on that engine, my suggestion would be to check the alignment of each of the pulleys with respect to the crank pulley which is "fixed", and also the pulleys to one another. Use a long straight edge placed on the outside surface of the pulley to check whether it is tilted and also if it is displaced from the plane of all the other pulleys. That way you can best identify which one is most in need of adjustment. I see no difficulty in shimming the alternator.
By the way, the easiest way to service the belt and the tensioner is to jack up the right front side, remove the wheel and then remove the inner wheel well splash shield which then gives you good access to entire front end of the engine.
Roland