Right without starting an arguement over what Im doing with my car, why would a fanbelt / alternator belt keep jumping off?
My theory is oil contamination from the recent oil cooler pipe leaks combine that with the recent damp making for very slippy pulleys?
The belt 1st came off last nite in Windsor and since then Ive driven the car back to Reading, drove to Vauxhalls this morning and from there to Lower early (about 8 miles) from there back to my house, have taken the wife to work and the belt jumped off again tonite as I was coming to work. I know when it came off because I was keeping a very close eye on the voltage gauge so basically its done a fair amount of mileage between jumping off.
Im gonna be putting the new belt on later when work settles down, thank god the car is in a nice warm underground garage.
where the slider arm bolts to there are bushes inside. these wear and the whole lot moves out and the belt jumps off.
dangerous. cheap to fix, do it sooner rather than 16 valves later
All i can think is that is it the right belt, it might be 2 tight, it was really hard to get on even thought the alternator was slackerend off all the way. or R all redtop alternator belts like that? Thats all i can think of (apart from oil contamination)
Ive just put the new belt on and all I can say is thank **** it jumped off, the only thing holding the old belt together is the back webbing at one point. The teeth have lost 50% of their depth all the way round and the belt is twisted to ****.
I know what would have happened had that belt snapped.
Ive put the new belt on and examined it closely whilst its running and everything is in line with no wobbles from pulleys etc.
where the slider arm bolts to there are bushes inside.
replace the altenator mounting bushes and the bush under the adjuster arm 16v describes (yes the one your thinking of mavv), these perish and allow the altenator to twist , the pulley angles towards the block and then the belt is prone to jumping and also accelerated wear.
Erm without sounding thick which mounting bushes ?
Do you mean where the alternator bolts onto the engine? Cant say ive ever payed that much attention to alternators as I have never really had a problem with one apart from changing the belts when they start to scream.
yeh. aparently you can use bushes from the pas pump mounts as an upgrade. i looked into this but its rubbish. altenator bushes have a sleeve through the middle, pas mounts do not. put pas bushes on the alenator and do up the pivot bolt and it just squishes the rubber.
Thats because when you switch your rear screen heater on you are drawing more power from the battery so therefore the alternator has to work a little harder to maintain charge in the battery.
the only difference, size wise, is that the PAS bushes are a little longer, so stick out a mm or so from the alt mount - otherwise they're a straight swap - and the inner bore is the same.
afaik, all PAS bushes were the same on the early twin belts, so Oddballs been at the bleach again I reckon
Mav, yer thats what i thought BUT the altanator is spun on by the belt, which is spun by the engine bit (pully wheel? ) so i the speed of the belt doesnt change?
u see wot im getting @
it's the slack in the belt which is the problem - the speed differencial of engine and alternator makes it pile up at one pulley or the other - andif the alternator bushes or belt are worn, the effect is not dissimilar to plugging a male cobra into the mains via it's manhood.
i had a go when i ditched the PAS. the standard alt bushes had a flange and sleeve that slide through the middle, so you can only tighten them as far as the two tips of the flange touch.
the pas bushes had a sleeve molded into them but no flange on the end, so when the pivot bolt tightened it just crushed and distorted the rubber, and stopped the alt from pivoting.
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