Date:         Mon, 21 May 2012 18:14:17 -0400
Reply-To:     pickle vanagon <greenvanagon@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         pickle vanagon <greenvanagon@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Photos of broken alternator pulley
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Here are the promised photos.
http://wesandmaria.com/images/pulleys.jpg

http://wesandmaria.com/images/shaft.jpg

The pulley had not turned appreciably past the notch, just a tad as part of
the failure but was then stuck in position.  The sharp edge where it split
was cutting up belts.

It looks to me that the notch on the shaft may actually have been the
initial failure point, since both pully halves were chewed up by the
notch.  (Notice the notch on the good half rounded out a bit).  Both
notches were good when installed on the shaft the previous day.  It looks
to me like that shaft notch pivoted into the shaft on one end allow the
pulleys to be pulled up over it.

Thoughts?
Wes


On Sun, May 20, 2012 at 7:03 PM, pickle vanagon <greenvanagon@gmail.com>wrote:

> Just wanted to let everyone know what happened.
>
> We were in Pittsburgh last week where I was borrowing space in my parents'
> garage to swap our engine for a rebuilt 2.1 from Gary Leblanc.  (I'll post
> details on that job later.)
>
> After some initial miles around Pittsburgh, we were on a break-in style
> drive back to New York on small roads when our alternator pulley
> self-destructed.  One of the halves split and separated.  I promise to post
> photos.  Anyways, this must have torn up the belt in short order.
>
> I have discovered an extra benefit of having an auxiliary battery setup in
> a westy.  Normally I think the alternator light might be easy to miss for a
> minute or two which could result in overheating quite quickly I imagine.
> In our case, I heard the *whack* of the stancor relay shutting off, looked
> at the dash and saw the alternator light on, and knew immediately we had a
> problem.  Shut off the engine right away, pulled over and found the chewed
> up belt and destroyed pulley.
>
> After I sent the email to the list, Ryan in Johnstown really came through
> for me and took *his* alternator out of his vanagon to lend to us (a
> relative of mine in the area picked it up for us), which got us back on
> track.  Made it to Granny Grose's late, but it was still fun to see all the
> busses and vanagons.  Today we finished the drive back to NYC.  I'll be
> sending Ryan his alternator back, and I have a spare in Pittsburgh that
> will be sent to me.
>
> All in all, thanks to the kindness of strangers, things turned out quite
> well!
>