Tried to replace belt. Old belt was shredded--shows signs of overheating. The blue plastic spacer between the motor pulley and motor housing was melted and fell off the motor shaft The blue spacer cannot be purchased, would have to buy new motor assembly! Ouch ($135)--it's a 25 cent part. I'm not sure of function of spacer, is it to keep the belt from jumping off the pulley? Made another spacer (wood--2 piece--same dimensions as original spacer), put the spacer on the shaft and installed new belt. After less than 2 weeks new belt failed, shows signs of heating. Spacer I made is still intact on motor shaft.
When belt is installed per diagram (ribs/grooves facing away from drum), the flat part of the belt is against the grooves on the motor pulley. You can see that the grooves on the pulley cut into the belt. I'm confused--seems like the grooves on the belt should line up with grooves on the pulley and this would keep the belt from jumping off
Questions: The belt seems to be jumping off the pulley--originally it must have jumped off and wrapped itself around the shaft long enough to create friction to melt the blue plastic spacer. Maybe this happened again?
Does anyone have experience with this problem? Not willing to spend another $25 for a belt since it has failed twice now.

Question #2: Did I install the belt correctly, does the flat part really align against the sharp pulley grooves?