Last Saturday evening coming home from our Sonic cruise in, I heard a thunk and a few minutes later noticed my temperature heading up. My wife and I pulled over in a parking lot and I found the fan belt was chewed in two and hanging off. I was no where's near a auto store and it was starting to get dark so I called my insurance tow service. While waiting a young guy came by and offered to take me down the road to an auto store to get a belt and since the tow wait was going to be 2 hrs and I had tools in the car, I took him up on it.
I got a toothed belt of proper length and slipped it on it minutes. This is an AC car so the belt goes around the crank pulley to the water pump to an idler pulley. Fired it up and seemed OK. The belt runs true - all my pulleys are carefully aligned. No strange noises. I thanked the guy and gave him some money for his help and shut the hood. As I was walking back to the door - whang - bad noises. Opened the hood and the new belt was dissected lengthwise and crosswise and had managed to throw the alternator belts off the pulley and roll my PS belt. So - wait for the tow we did.
I ordered some more Quantas restoration belts this morning, but then I cleaned the pulleys and put another used, tooth belt I had that was on the car when I bought it. I've just finished running the car in the driveway for about half an hour and everything seems fine. I reved it up, killed it and re-started and it's doing fine??? So what was the problem???
The first belt looks like someone took a big bite out of it - but the rest looks fine.
The second belt lasted about 3 minutes and look at it.
The water pump pulley and the fan blades are coated in rubber so it kind of looks like the water pump was the center of the problem. The pump and idler all seem tight and spin smoothly and no strange noises. The only thing I can think of that would take a bite out of that belt was if the water pump bearing seized up, stopping the belt and the crank pulley just ground a hole in it. I don't think the idler bearing seizing up for a moment would stop the belt from running. But what destroyed the second, new belt - I can't figure.
Now I don't know if I can trust taking the car out. Anyone seen anything like this?
I got a toothed belt of proper length and slipped it on it minutes. This is an AC car so the belt goes around the crank pulley to the water pump to an idler pulley. Fired it up and seemed OK. The belt runs true - all my pulleys are carefully aligned. No strange noises. I thanked the guy and gave him some money for his help and shut the hood. As I was walking back to the door - whang - bad noises. Opened the hood and the new belt was dissected lengthwise and crosswise and had managed to throw the alternator belts off the pulley and roll my PS belt. So - wait for the tow we did.
I ordered some more Quantas restoration belts this morning, but then I cleaned the pulleys and put another used, tooth belt I had that was on the car when I bought it. I've just finished running the car in the driveway for about half an hour and everything seems fine. I reved it up, killed it and re-started and it's doing fine??? So what was the problem???
The first belt looks like someone took a big bite out of it - but the rest looks fine.
The second belt lasted about 3 minutes and look at it.
The water pump pulley and the fan blades are coated in rubber so it kind of looks like the water pump was the center of the problem. The pump and idler all seem tight and spin smoothly and no strange noises. The only thing I can think of that would take a bite out of that belt was if the water pump bearing seized up, stopping the belt and the crank pulley just ground a hole in it. I don't think the idler bearing seizing up for a moment would stop the belt from running. But what destroyed the second, new belt - I can't figure.
Now I don't know if I can trust taking the car out. Anyone seen anything like this?
