Belt failure

[Wayne Cox]

At 06:06 PM 7/4/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>My alternator/compressor belt has just burned off and...
>...do alternators seize like that or is it more likely the compressor?

Years ago, the alternator in my '92 SE-R seized up and the belt started
smoking.  Shut it off real fast;  but after I figured out what was going
on, the starter couldn't even turn it over to re-start!  Luckily, I had a
utility knife in the car and hacked the belt off and was only a couple
miles from home.

IIRC, 9 out of 10 such failures I've read about here over the years
(8-ish?!) are the alternator, not the A/C.  You can buy the two bearings
for about $25 from Nissan for a DIY rebuild.  Generic bearing sellers
[Bearings Inc., etc.] didn't have a part number match or anything rated for
the 20K+ RPM.  A Nissan re-man alternator retails for $230.