About six months before I purchased my YIO-540-D4A5 Lycoming engine from Van's they made a decision in support of a single customer in Brazil to change the standard Lycoming ring gear to a dual pulley LW-12227 ring gear. Unfortunately, this decision caused all the standard boss mount alternators to have misaligned belts. The risk is that the belt could come off at any time and premature failures due to illregular wear.
I called Vans, Plane Power, and Lycoming. Even though this has been going on for well over a year, all claimed no knowledge of the problem. Plane Power working with Lycoming came up with a solution that would use different spacers on the alternator. Vans seems indifferent to finding a solution. I found this a little disappointing.
I had to soak the old spacers in acetone for about a hour to get them off. They were cemented in place with some type of adhesive. Once I got the old ones off, I replaced with the new ones.
The good news is the the belt is now on perfectly straight.
