>>in the case of the 300 TDi, it's not going to be excessive belt tension
>>causing bearing failure, seeing as it's auto tensioned.
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>DIY customers would moan because their new alternator had packed up the
>same as the last one when really it was the belt doing the damage.
yebbut, this tensioner is a) not very old and b) working properly.
If the replacement pump doesn't come in time to fit it today I'll try
welding the pulley boss back on the one that came off as a short-term
solution, and sacrifice the 18-quid-odd that I might get as a refund. I
don't need the vehicle off the road, 's a pain in the butt. Provided the
pulley can't actually fall off, it doesn't need to drive anything much - the
load created by the water pump itself is minimal.
In what way can the tensioner be too tight, though? Unless it's seized and
someone gorillas it? The tension is set by a spring, and I can't see that
being anything other than too weak, in the normal run of things.
Thinking about this pump, it might have been defective from the start - I
noticed it was running slightly off-true, which I put down to most likely
the pressed-steel pulley being out of kilter a touch, but it could equally
have been that the boss wasn't right on the shaft from the outset.

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Austin Shackles. www.ddol-las.net my opinions are just that
"Quos deus vult perdere, prius dementat" Euripedes, quoted in
Boswell's "Johnson".
Austin Shackles - 14 Nov 2005 18:40 GMT
>If the replacement pump doesn't come in time to fit it today I'll try
>welding the pulley boss back on the one that came off as a short-term
>solution, and sacrifice the 18-quid-odd that I might get as a refund. I
>don't need the vehicle off the road, 's a pain in the butt. Provided the
>pulley can't actually fall off, it doesn't need to drive anything much - the
>load created by the water pump itself is minimal.
well, hammered the pulley and boss back on (quite a tight fit) and to be on
the safe side I made a couple of small tack welds to between the pulley and
the end of the shaft...
and the f*cker went about 6 miles and fell off again. 's definitely going
back.
So now the motor's immobilised in a car park about 4 miles away, 'til I get
and fit a new pump - of which no sign today, useless bastard couriers...
Feck arse feck, as Fr. Jack would say.
What beats me is why the sod falls off in the first place[1] - the amount of
power transmitted from the pulley to the pump shaft is minimal, and the belt
should, I'd have thought, tend to keep it aligned - it's got to move at
least 1/2" out of line to fall off.
[1] apart from being defective, of course.

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Austin Shackles. www.ddol-las.net my opinions are just that
"The breezy call of incense-breathing Morn, The swallow twittering
from the strawbuilt shed, The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing
horn, No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed."
Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.