Yes stock. It is done for weight removal to balance I forget what it's called. The actual Harmonic Balancer is behind it.

I have three motors in storage. They have at least one or two drilled holes at varying depth. The one in my car seems overkill compared to the other's.

It's called a "Vibration Absorber" Picture courtesy of stretch.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...ank-parts1.jpg
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...ank-parts2.jpg


.

That's it right there. I change my belts before they go bad, and the old ones go in the trunk w/ the spare tire for just such an occasion.

Edit: Also as one who used to sell those link belts, they are:

Hugely more expensive than regular V belts, they were $1/inch when I sold them several years ago and I imagine they've only gone up.

Not flexible/stretchable AND difficult to link up. You will need some way to adjust tension on them, there's no way you're going to link them up and then slip them over the pulleys while still having them be tight enough to do any good when you're done. Nor will you be linking them up under tension.

Not tolerant of high RPM use.

In addition, though not applicable to the application discussed, they also:

Won't transmit as much power as normal V belts, both less contact area and a less sticky compound.

Don't last as long as a normal V belt.

If I was stuck in the middle of nowhere with an alternator to bypass and several feet of link belt handy, you betcha I'd make a go of it, but I really like the shoe laces idea.

The only things I sold link belts for were situations where some dumbass had designed a piece of machinery with literally no way to get a continuous loop of belt on there, or someone line down who just needed ANYTHING to get them moving again and no one in town had the right size in a regular V belt. Usually that only happened once, as we recommended they order a replacement V belt then, and then a spare or three to throw on the shelf as well.

Changing belts may not be an easy or appropriate task in an emergency. A temporary belt such as a shoe lace should be in every emergency kit and you should practice using it before a real emergency. The most critical belt is the water pump, since you cannot drive more than a few minutes w/o the engine overheating. I had a water pump belt break on a Peugeot diesel long time ago, didn't know the shoe lace trick. I drove it home by watching the temp gauge, as it gets to above normal, I'd pull over, pop the hood and let it cool off and drive again. Got home eventually w/o damage to the engine.

I assume the shoelace is only around the water pump and crank pulleys, and not also around the alternator pulley?

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...tringbelt3.jpg

Yes, just the main crank pulley and the water pump.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...tringbelt1.jpg

OM617YOTA mentions the importance of tension in his post, I don't think you can get proper tension hooking up 3 pulleys. Plus, if you are worried about snapping the shoe lace, I would think an alternator drag in addition to the water pump drag would increase the strain on the lace.

Be sure to have a pocket knife handy to cut off the excess from the knot. You don't want it catching on to anything.



.

Yes, no sense hooking the alternator pulley, an extra unneeded load on the shoe string.

Human powered sewing machines were driven by a single non continuous round cross section leather belt. The ends are joined by a hog ring and is very durable. Maybe using a hog ring to join a cut V belt will make a good emergency belt. What's needed is a longer V belt than needed, a coat hanger to make the hog ring, an awl, pair of pliers and a cutter. I'll have to do some experimenting.

Alternator bearings are cheap and easy to replace. It and the brushes are the only thing that really wears out and needs replacing on a schedule. The slip ring can also wear but at a much slower rate than the brushes. I have never had to buy an alternator, just replace brushes and bearings.

This is why some Hondas and select OM617 vehicles have auxiliary electric coolant pumps