The screeching noise is for sure the belt. The Alternator failure is from the heat  that  is generated  from the belt being loose. When the belt slips across the pulley all the heat is transmitted to the shaft.
Besides ALWAYS keeping the belt tight (but not so tight as to ruin the bearing either on the alternator itself or the water pump) one thing I added to my system is a new 3 stage regulator. The one I got has a 30 second delay before it turns the alternator on AND it ramps up the current slowly. This way you don’t slam the system with cranking out 100 amps right at the start. It gives the belt a  chance to warm up a little and get seated.
It seams to have reduced the number of times I need to get in there and tighten it up.
Alan

— On Tue, 7/6/10, Silver Heels <> wrote:

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Thatcher
There are a number of things that can cause your belt to wear. One of them
is old age. Both the alternator and belt are service items and must be
serviced at a regular interval. Once the belt starts slipping, it will
burnish and won’t grab the pulleys well from that moment on. A burnished
belt should be changed and not overtightened. Here are some tips.

Belts come in three flavors, no notch, notch on the outside and notch on the
inside. The notches are for cooling the belt. Ignore the first type. Don’t
use them. For the other two, one is designed to take a shock load and the
other is designed to wear well. The first type is thinner. It avoids damage
when subjected to a shock load by slipping slightly. They usually come with
ribs on the outside to provide better cooling. They tend to wear out
quicker, but rarely snap. Use this type if you have an oversized alternator.
When the regulator switches into high charge, it will put a shock-load on
the alternator belt. The other flavor has a thicker construction and slips
less. These belts frequently have ribs on the inside. Since they have more
surface area in contact with the sheave, they don’t slip as easily. When
subjected to a shock load, they may snap.

Belt tension must be maintained properly. Too much tension can cause
premature wear of the alternator or water-pump bearings. It can also cause
a failure of your engine crankshaft. Too little tension can cause the belts
to wear. I tension my belts until there is about the same amount of play as
the belt thickness when I press down on the belt. I use a tensioning tool
to make the adjustment.

The pulleys must be in alignment with each other. A bent alternator or
water pump bracket can cause the belts to wear unevenly.

Don’t overtighten the alternator rack bolt. A proper bolt, nut, and
lock-washer shouldn’t allow the alternator to slip in the rack.

Belts must be of the proper size for their load. If you retrofit a
high-capacity alternator, your stock pulleys may not be large enough. This
can cause you to overtighten the belts to keep them from slipping. If you
have this problem consider adjusting your regulator max charge setting if it
has one.

If you have everything setup properly, you won’t have belt-dust on the
accessory end of the engine.

Rich

http://pradkentacoocanopconspermore.yourpillsworld.net

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