Breaking Fan Belts

[Phil Waterman]

Thanks all for the suggestions of what to check. Removed the generator to check it. Removed the brushes that are not badly worn with less then 12,000 miles on them, spun the generator up to about 1800 rpm it ran smooth and quiet, and took a long time to spin down to a stop. Generator has the sealed ball bearings both ends not little oiling caps. Strange as my HUP which is two years newer and does not have the air filter has the oiling caps. Only noticeable problem was the mounting bolt holes in both generator and bracket were both badly egg shaped, drilled them out to the next size larger and change to larger bolts.

Fan seems to turn freely with no noticeable lateral or vertical movement. Does drag more than a dry pump but that is to be expected as pump was still on the engine with full cooling system. Fan has no detectable forward back play.

All the pulleys look in good condition with the top of the belt riding nearly at the top edge (outside) of the pulley. They also look to run true.

Reinstalled generator and aligned all the pulleys by eye, need to make one of those tools shown in manual. Test ran it in the shop up to a constant 3000 rpm with no noticeable problems. Now I guess only time and another long road run will tell. Think a spare water pump and another belt are in order before getting to far from home again.

Note the affect on coolant recovery tank the vent could not vent fast enough. Where am I going to find another coffee can the same size.

Included a couple of pictures including pictures one of the fan belt spaghetti resulted.