Has anyone here tried to make their own laser alignment tool to find a misaligned pulley? Since doing the 8-rib swap, I have a squeak/chirp that comes up after a new belt has worn in a few hundred miles. I am not totally opposed to buying the DriveAlign tool but $100+ for a tool I will use once doesn't seem practical to me. I have a few of the cheap laser pointers here and was thinking of affixing one to a section of old serpentine belt with an elastic cord to hold it to the pulley. Where I am stuck is how to get the pointer perfectly centered and attached to the section of belt? Without the laser being perfectly parallel to the belt I don't see how it would be any better than the straight edge I am using. Thoughts?

 

I've always used a piece of bright twine in the outermost rib. Determine a known good plane, usually on the crank pulley and check pulley to pulley based on that. Besides that, I've always used the laser tool.