Quote Originally Posted by dsmuts View Post
I'm telling you it's the belt it can "look" fine but still be bad. That definitely sounds like belt slipping. I replaced one on a car a while back that "looked" fine but had a belt squealing issue and a new belt fixed it right up. But you can waste money on an alternator if you want.
he is right about the belt. they do have little gauges to see if the grooves have worn past where they are effective.

when you cleaned it, did you see any missing grooves or large cracks?