I recently started taking metformin and after 4 months I can tighten my belt 2 more notches with the same tension. Those don't resemble the pulleys on my '85 QV. February 1985 build.
Fair point. I would have been more concerned if the new one was shorter. The old one being a bit shorter makes sense from what I know/learned about springs, there is a loss of spring formula that relates to stress relaxation depending on the material type, temp etc. so I was not surprised. I suppose I could have a slightly higher tension on the belt with the taller spring. I would expect that is why you just go by hand feel, and having done one belt change I would probably be fine to tension to a hand feel next time round as well.
Point being if you rely on the spring, new or old to get tension correct you do not know enough to be doing the job.
I honestly do not recall with any degree of certainty but I believe they were mostly 2 valve injected era.
I believe that "early" 308's had plastic pulleys, "later" cars used metal pulleys. My car is a OCT "77 build, it has plastic pulleys. As Windsock said, plastic cog with a metal center. The guide ring is also plastic, seemingly pressed on but I have found one ring with glue residue on it, factory or repair I don't know. No cracks on any of my pulleys, I checked them over carefully.
