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Car Forum / Oldsmobile Cars / November 20041992 Olds 88 Belt Fell Off
The other day the belt came off of my pulleys while I was sitting at a stop light. The old belt wasn't torn, but thinking it might be stretched, I bought a new belt and installed it. This is one long belt that drives all the accessories. However, for a couple of minutes before the old belt fell off the car was making a new sort of humming sound. And it's making that sound with the new belt. Looking at the engine in operation, it looks like the belt is about to fly off the front of the water pump at any moment. So I'm worried. What holds the belt on, anyway? There are no rims on the water pump pulley. The crank pulley doesn't appear to have a front rim. It seems like the belt could come sliding off the front of either of those pulleys. The AC and alternator pulleys have rims front and back, so they give me nice warm fuzzy feelings of belt security. If the new belt comes off, are there any common/likely causes? The belt tension pulley seems to be in good shape. At least, it took a fair amount of muscle to lever it up so that I could get the new belt around it. When the old belt came off I was close to home, so I drove it in with no power steering. When I got to the driveway, the car leaked coolant for a while, which it had not been doing previously, and it appears to have stopped. Would operating the car for about 1/2 mile at 30 MPH without the water pump turning cause coolant to come out somewhere? Thank you for any helpful or humorous suggestions. Jeff  SignatureA friend will help you move. A real friend will help you move a body. Driving half a mile without a water pump might cause some overheating. Do you think that the coolant you observed could have come from the overflow tank? Did the water pump rotate freely and noiselessly by hand while you had the belt off? Could the leaked coolant have come from the weep hole on the bottom of the water pump's housing? If so perhaps the pump bearing is on the way out. Are any of the mounting bolts for the driven devices loose? > The other day the belt came off of my pulleys while I was sitting at a > stop light. The old belt wasn't torn, but thinking it might be stretched, [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] > > Jeff > Driving half a mile without a water pump might cause some overheating. Do > you think that the coolant you observed could have come from the overflow > tank? It appeared to come from somewhere in the vicinity of the water pump. But it's difficult to distinguish where specifically, and I'm not familiar with any places where, perhaps, it should escape under such circumstances. I'm sure it was overheating. The hot lamp came on shortly before I reached my house, the thermometer was creeping above 250 (normally stays under 200) and I had driven about 20 - 25 highway miles before the belt fell off, so the engine was already well heated. > Did the water pump rotate freely and noiselessly by hand while you had the > belt off? Could the leaked coolant have come from the weep hole on the > bottom of the water pump's housing? If so perhaps the pump bearing is on > the way out. The belt fell off just a few miles down the highway (first time out after replacing it) today. The water pump seems to rotate freely and noiselessly by hand, but there also seems to be a fair bit of play in the angle of the axis of rotation (i.e. the pulley can wobble a bit). > Are any of the mounting bolts for the driven devices loose? The other devices all feel solid with no wobble apparent. Based on your suggestions I'm leaning toward bearing worn out in water pump. But I have one other question. Is the water pump pulley really meant to be smooth with no rim on the front or back? Thank you. Jeff SignatureA friend will help you move. A real friend will help you move a body. I think that you are doing the right thing by replacing your water pump. Based on your findings it is a prime suspect. Don't have a vehicle exactly like yours, but the shop manual for my '92 Pontiac Grand Am shows that the V6 engine for that machine has a smooth pulley on its water pump. I don't think you should be concerned about the lack of a rim or rims on your pulley. We'll have to assume that the GM engineers knew what they were doing with that design. It would be pure speculation for me to explain why they did it that way. > > Driving half a mile without a water pump might cause some overheating. Do > > you think that the coolant you observed could have come from the overflow [quoted text clipped - 32 lines] > > Jeff > I think that you are doing the right thing by replacing your water pump. > Based on your findings it is a prime suspect. [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > engineers knew what they were doing with that design. It would be pure > speculation for me to explain why they did it that way. Thank you for your help and for coming back to answer my questions a second time. I appreciate it. It's a relief to know that the WP pulley is meant to be smooth. I have trouble imagining what could have cost it its rims (if it were meant to have rims) but it was just so odd to see that smooth pulley in the middle, that I needed my mind set at ease on that score. Thanks again. I'm going to replace the water pump. I'll report back if that solves the problem. Jeff SignatureA friend will help you move. A real friend will help you move a body. > Thanks again. I'm going to replace the water pump. I'll report back if > that solves the problem. Replacing the water pump seems to have done the trick. However, it was quite the frustrating experience. I'm used to working on my previous car which was an older rear wheel drive Cutlas. Replacing the water pump was simple. Just take out the fan shroud, stand in the engine compartment and unbolt as needed... In this '92 88 two of the bolts to the WP go through the darned engine mount. And there's only about 1.5" - 2" of clearance between the head of the bolts and a flange of the mount, so it's barely possible to get a socket and drive in there for the top bolt and not possible (even using a .25" drive) for the lower bolt. I would have just used a wrench and come in from the side, but the bolts are recessed into the engine mount bracket, so a socket is necessary at least to back them out a bit. So I packed it in and took it to a local shop less than a mile away. They're nice folks and I dropped it off at 3:30 PM and they were done with it by 5:30 PM the day before Thanksgiving. Still, it would have been nice to save that $150. I guess if I had some way to support the engine, I could have removed the engine mount, but I am not so well equipped. Grrrr. GM! Grrrrr. But at least I'm back on the road (car-wise, my trusty '78 motorcycle was still running fine). Jeff SignatureA friend will help you move. A real friend will help you move a body. It's good to hear that the problem is solved. It sure would have been nice if those GM engineers had put just a little more thought into making it easier on the poor sap who might eventually have to replace a water pump when it finally wears out. Guess they must think that nothing will ever wear out. Did you try an offset wrench on that bolt that was recessed into the mount? There are a couple of bolts like that on my Grand Am. The long offset wrench set from Craftsman saved the day for me a while back. Anyway we learned something from your experience. Thanks for sharing it with us. > > Thanks again. I'm going to replace the water pump. I'll report back if > > that solves the problem. [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] > > Jeff
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