Date:         Sun, 6 May 2001 07:48:02 -0700
Reply-To:     steve@syncro.org
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Steve Schwenk <steve@syncro.org>
Subject:      Re: freak: alternator belt JUMPed off
Comments: To: Stebbins <stebbins@aucegypt.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

It is not that freakish.  Off road, stuff gets kicked
up into the belts and will cause them to be thrown off
or chewed up.  VW made the stone deflectors for the
belts to address this problem.  But it is different
than an oil cap!
steve

Stebbins wrote:
>
> On our last trip, we went to Siwa, about 500 KMs west of
> Cairo and 300 Kms south of the Mediterranean, it is a small
> oasis town/village.  As we were driving slowly along some of
> the back dirt "paths" my ever-observant wife said: "The
> needle is VERY high!"  As I looked at the gauges,  I could
> see that the battery light was also ON.  I had been
> concentrating on driving and she had glanced at the gages
> (good vanagon wife!!).  I immediately stopped.    At the
> back of the van, coolant was spewing out of the top of the
> secondary expansion tank and the alternator/water-pump belt
> was just lazing about on top of the engine!  How could that
> be!!!!
>
> We decided to go have a glass of juice while the engine
> cooled off so we could work on it.  Upon our return, I saw
> the oil filler cap was lodged in under the water pump pulley
> - my oil filter tube is not stock, it is a flexible radiator
> hose with a rubber "stopper" in the top.  The cap had deep
> grooves in it from the pulley.  I checked the water pump
> pulley, it was not wobbly the alt pulley was OK too.  I can
> ONLY surmise that somehow the cap blew/giggled off and
> became lodged in the pulley (freak incident) and heated up
> the belt and it just squeezed itself off the pulley.  We put
> the belt back on, lodged the oil filler cap in a better
> place and had no problems on our way home.  What a freak
> incident.  Malcolm