My fiance and I are both Firefighter/Paramedics. We use an old 240 DL wagon to commute to work and haul our stuff around. The car 1988 vintge.

Last week she heard the sound of a dying belt and didnt look any further into it. Two days ago she tried to start it on a 55 degree morning. It would not turn over. When I took a look under the hood I saw one of the two belts shredded and wrapped around the fan clutch/pulley. When I tried to start it there were no issues(the battery was warmer as it was later in the day). It then died after running for 2 min. and required a jump to start and continued external power to keep running.

It sounds as if the alternator is not charging the system and there the battery is drained to the point it wont support the ignition system. The thing that I dont get is that there is an additional belt turning the alternator. Both belts look to have equal diameter pulleys so there is no defferance in RPM between the two belts. Should one belt not be enough to keep the alternator turning at an appropriate speed? Why two belts? Redundancy? I have noted no damaged wired from the alternator.

What could the issue be? Can the proccess of a belt breaking fry an alternator?

 

2 belts are for a piece of mind.

Sounds like the Alt is bad or maybe the voltage regulator/Brushes.