MisterRisky

A couple of weekends ago my wife and I were left stranded when my fan bearing went out. At the time I thought it was my alternator, but after yanking the parts off I quickly discovered it was the fan bearing, not the alternator. In order to simplify the arrangement, I replaced the fan bearing and hub with the RS hub which simplifies life by removing a belt and bearing. The fan now turns with the alternator shaft.

I experimented with doing some hand held video of the process. Below is my gonzo cam howto.

Fast4525

Thanks for taking the time to make the video!

How many hours did the job take from begining to end?

Does the RS hub cause the alternator to turn much slower?

Can you please post the part #s for what is required in this conversion?

Cheers

MisterRisky

I'm glad you all got some use out of the video. Per the questions asked above:

Speed of the alternator: I didn't measure the pulleys and calculate the % drop in speed (which would have been easy to do if I had thought of it). What I noticed is that at night with fog and headlights on I get a slight dimming of my headlights at idle. As soon as I give it some gas the lights get a tad brighter. I don't remember that behavior before, but I wasnt looking for it either. I have never had the charge low enough that it triggered the alternator warning light or anything like that.

Parts: The RS hub is 993.106.051.80. I also had to get some new shims which are right out of the parts catalog.

Time: This is tough. It took me about 5 hours to pull the alternator and get all the pulleys and stuff off. This would have taken about 2 if there had not been what I call "heat welding" caused by the bearing failure and everything slipping on the shaft. I went slowly so that I would not totally screw up the alternator shaft. The sandblasting/painting is hard to count. I messed with it for less than an hour on a number of occasions. I have a homemade blast cabinet so the sand blasting was done in under an hour. The painting was done in a number of coats. Putting it all back together only took a couple of hours. So, in a nutshell, you could do this in a Saturday if you didn't do the painting. If you do the painting, you can take it all apart in 4 hours, paint it over a few days, and put it all together in 2.

Washers: Richard, you are not alone. I've been pulling things apart and putting them together for damn near 30 years and I can't get it through my thick skull that everything that twists tight should have a washer between the twisty part and the stationary part. Seems easy enough, but always end up taking something off and putting a washer back in there.

Glad you guys liked the video. This site has been so incredibly helpful to me I am thrilled to be able to add to the body of knowledge.

Just to make this thread a one stop shop for reference material, here's a list of all the threads I found useful:


Alternator and alternator removal:
https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...or#post3425865
http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarti...1_fan_belt.htm
http://p-car.com/diy/alternator/alternator.html
http://p-car.com/diy/vbelt/

info on the fan hub bearing:
https://rennlist.com/forums/993-forum/248213-fan-bearing-needed-dead-in-the-water.html

RS pully info:
https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...bearing&page=3
https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...4513#post74513
https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...threadid=10306
https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...&threadid=8287
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showt...=311979&page=2

Boeing 717

Man thats awsome JD, what kind of paint did you use???/


JERRY

MisterRisky

Jerry: I used 500 degree paint from my local Advance Auto Parts. I need to touch up some nicks from installing but that will wait until its a bit warmer.

pat056

While I'm there, alternator and fan...no A/C
How hard is it? Mine is just showing only the slightest wear and no splits. It's 3 old and only run about 5,000 miles, but they are race miles.

MisterRisky

Well removing mine was really easy... I just drove it until the fan bearing burned up and it threw all three belts off in a cloud of angry metal and smoke. I don't recommend going that route.

From this diagram you can see the bits pretty easy:


Start with part number 22 and move forward. You will need the special star head wrench from the tool kit which is used to keep the alternator shaft from turning. Take note of the number of spacers between the pulley halves. The spacers determine the belt tension. As should be obvious from the diagram above, you have to take both belts off to replace the inner belt. I eliminated the outer belt by using the RS hub.

Good luck and let us know if you get hung up.

KirkF

Great video!

How do you pull the bearing off of the alternator shaft?
What do you do about the belt break sensor now that you dont need it?

Kirk

MisterRisky

Kirk, my bearing had totally come apart so all I had left on the shaft was the inner race. I took it off by cutting a small groove it parallel to the shaft then breaking the race open with a chisel. I cut all the way through the race in a couple of places and nicked the alternator shaft. That's no big deal as I just smoothed it over with a file after the race was removed. The RS hub is long so it more than covered where I nicked the shaft. I put a wet towel over the alternator to keep metal bits out of the alternator. It will shorten the life of your alternator if it fills up with metal shavings.

If the bearing had been together I would have tried to pull it with a pulley puller and then probably gotten annoyed and just cut it off with a grinder. You may see a common thread in my DIYs. If the part is going to be replaced I see no sin in cutting it up with a cut off wheel or a grinder. What I lack in fineness I make up for in pragmatism.

pat056

How much time should I allow for a fan and alternator belt replace? On a 1-10 scale, how hard of a job is this?

MisterRisky

Just replacing the belts? Plan on spending two hours and you should find that you still have time left for a beer at the end. I struggle with putting it on a scale but if 1 is air in the tires and 2 is an oil change then this is a 2.5 or 3, maybe. The only thing that makes it harder than an oil change is that you have to remember the order that you took things off and you run the risk of dropping nuts down the in the engine compartment. I agree with others who recommend shoving towels down around the belts to catch falling nuts.

wsybert

The alternator light now becomes your belt break indicator.

code7rpd

I know this is an older thread but it was one of the best I have seen on the RS pulley replacement. Quick question - when installing the pulleys: do you still use the stock shims for belt tension? On the pulleys for this thread - are they new one's or the stock ones that have been cleaned up and polished? They look nice, new and shiny.

jim_l

the stock shims will fit the pulley, you should have a few different size shims and the tool to check belt tension. Great DIY indeed would hate to see what a shop would get for this upgrade.