Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2011 17:20:30 -0800
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: did i do that
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reply-type=original
hi Roger,
bummer.
re
I thought it was
unusual to have to retighten every few months ... but had begun to consider
it regular maintenance ..."
that need to retighten should or could have raised a concern.
and it is Very Classic that waterboxer alternator brackets break..
and 'the thing is' .....when everything is tight and right ..
that bracket and associated bolts and studs and nuts hold just fine, for
nearly forever.
BUT .allowed to be loose or worn ...
and not re-done completely and solidly .....
it will eventually just break things.
Sometimes badly.
the bracket itself ..not too a big a deal...
weldable and I have about 5 good ones in stock.
it's the two studs in the engine case.
if those break off ..
gonna take a lot of patience to restore that.
I just had the same thing on a guy's diesel westy ( pretty much the same
setup you had on your old TD Westy ....
someone had welded an aluminum bracket on a diesel ...and they are pretty
critical about things being really solid...
then it got driven for quite a while..the weld broke..
things just pounded themselves until lots was broken ...
and the sad thing is, if it had been noticed or caught early enough ..
wouldn't be hard to deal with much at all.
same with waterboxers ..
it IS a regular service item/thing to check...
the proper and secure mounting of the alternator and it's bracket and
fasteners.
Many of them have broken .
and always from being driven thousands of miles while loose and not right.
well there is a change world events could preempt ..
but you're in a safer more rational country..
most likely you'll get to deal with it in early 2012.
Scott
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger Whittaker" <rogerwhitt1@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, December 16, 2011 2:54 PM
Subject: did i do that
> dear fellow vanogonears
>
> was traveling appointed rounds today when belt was tossed
> two lights came on ... limp home to remedy ...
> went to tighten alternator and discovered reason for belt toss
> the bolt fastened to block under alt had broken free of block by breaking
> metal surrounding bolt ... likely last time alt was changed or put in
> place
> or maybe several times before and simply worried apart in my care ...
> so because i only required to make two short trips today i jury rigged to
> a
> tightness that survived bench test revving and continued on
> 6 k later the belt tossed again
> this time i sussed further and discovered that the other of the two bolts
> holding alt in place was missing ... i tried to place a new one only to
> discover the old one had been twisted off ...
> when indeed and how long had this issue been festering ...
> should i look askance at previous engine install or my own self for not
> giving better inspection last time i tightened the alt ... i thought it
> was
> unusual to have to retighten every few months ... but had begun to
> consider
> it regular maintenance ...
> so she was towed home today ... flat deck mounted westie getting to be the
> yearly christmas feature in my traditions
> and first on the list for 2012 (unless end of world events preempt ...)
> fashion better alt bracket for 84 westie with transplanted slightly larger
> than OEM engine
>
> a circus of events brought about in an effort to disturb my senses ...
> indeed
> regards
>
> --
> roger w
> From Proverbs:
> Under three things the earth trembles, under four it cannot bear up: a
> servant who becomes king ...
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> Explore printed work at: http://www.prliving.ca/
> View the growing list of video work at:
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> http://www.prpeak.com/articles/2010/11/29/multimedia/video/doc4c62e5f80d228504902172.txt
