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Thought I'd share a holiday weekend wrenching adventure...
After over 2 years of work (partially documented in galleries in my profile)… I got my car on the road this spring. I drove it to work. I drove it to the store. I drove it to client meetings 30 miles away. It did great. It was a blast.
Last weekend I decided it was time to trust my work and the car… and what better way to do that than a father-daughter road trip? I’d drive my daughter to summer camp three hours away.
As I had just repaired a small AC leak and the camp was down in southeastern Virginia (a place historically known to be swampy and occasionally oppressive in the summer)… I decided I’d top off my refrigerant. Just after starting the car… I heard what can only be described as “a bunch of rocks being shaken in a “Homer Bucket” from Home Depot” coming from the front of the car. It lasted for a few seconds and then went away. I got my “stethoscope” out and started poking around. Everything sounded normal until I touched the metal probe attachment to plastic belt cover. Pure chaos.
Short story… I drove my daughter to camp in the Outback.
Slightly longer story… I thought that it was a loose belt tensioner. At least I hoped it was… since the alternatives I could think of were all a lot worse.
Taking the plastic cover off… one of the idle pulleys dropped to the ground under the car. The bolt holding it… simply wasn’t there. Not sheared off… gone.
Not knowing where the bolt wound up was… disconcerting. I finally gave up and started cleaning up after myself. And found the bolt when cleaning the belt cover. Partially melted into it. The bolt had gotten thrown around and wound up pinned at the balance shaft gear. Where it promptly started wearing away the belt. Given the amount of metal shavings from the bolt mixed in with the rubber powder from the belt… I’m replacing the timing and balance belts. And all the tensioners and pulleys.
Sort of glad I decided to take the other car.
Something missing in this picture... Melted into the cover...
Yikes!! Throw that one in the got lucky bin. Well while you are in there what bolts and or nuts need to be evaluated and replaced. I seem to think and my most recent reading regarding timing belt that the locking nuts on the pulleys ought to be changed. Just sticks back in my brain somewhere. Im putting mine back together rt now I think Ill take a second look.
Of course... now I'm left to wonder how the darn thing backed out. Did I not torque it?? I'm inclined to use thread lock this time around. The parts list doesn't show a lock washer... Just a regular washer.
Now I'm paranoid. Or at least more paranoid than I already was...
Last edited by Millermatic; 07-05-2022 at 11:57 AM.
I'm using Belleville washers everywhere these days. I'm deep into a motor mount thing on my 928, which has necessitated removing a lot of suspension bits and the paranoia is real. The engine stuff is another huge area of paranoia.
Something I’ve done in the past is mark everything after I torque it with a paint pen or grease pencil so I could visually check them. I just torque one and immediately mark it so nothing is forgotten. Just food for thought on those days you don’t trust yourself. Especially when beer is involved… which it seems it commonly can be on these cars.
Something I’ve done in the past is mark everything after I torque it with a paint pen or grease pencil so I could visually check them. I just torque one and immediately mark it so nothing is forgotten. Just food for thought on those days you don’t trust yourself. Especially when beer is involved… which it seems it commonly can be on these cars.
I switched to bourbon, myself. Those Imperial IPA's have too many calories and I'm working off the work-from-home weight gain...
But yes... I typically use a grease pen to mark off bolts. Must not have that time.
Interestingly... I was checking the Arnnworx site and came across a bunch of pictures of what a stray bolt in the belt enclosure can do:
Got the new belts and pulleys in. Bonus…belt whine that people said was normal until it gets warm is gone.
What started out with an aborted trip to take my daughter -to- camp ended with a trip picking up my son -from- camp. What was supposed to be a 4-5 hour round trip took over 8 hours. Stop-and-go traffic in 95 degree heat. And the only “car thing” of note was… there was absolutely _nothing_ to note. Car did great. So did the kid!
07-05-2022, 10:49 AM
Narrowly averted... something probably not good.
