I have the original drive belt, but threw out the rollers which were flat spotted. New belt is thicker/shorter which may be riding too high on the variator faces to get enough rpm for initial movement,
and, likewise, prematurely causing the clutch faces to seperate prematurely, hence as you said I'm trying to start out in the wrong "gear". I may try the old belt or put a few hundred miles on this belt to break it in.
It's early in the am here, so please excuse the dumb question: Are the sliders onstalled into the variator prior to the rollers? I don't have these parts in front of me, but I do not think even I could screw this up. Also, the sliders are triangular shaped on one end and I put this side down into the varaiator...is this correcrt? Thanks f/ everyones help.