<VV> Throwing belt

[Tony Underwood]

At 10:51 PM 9/11/2010, Smitty wrote:

> >azing!
>***************************
>Smitty Says;   Ray you just can't get the pulleys too slick and smooth.
>Sometimes it takes a lot of work to get them smooth enough.


Exactly.   The majority of tossed belts on a 'Vair that's just been 
resurrected is because the pulleys were rough and ate the fan 
belt.   If it runs regularly the pulleys will stay polished... but 
park it for a month anywhere the air might be damp and the polished 
surface on the pulleys turns brown.

How many times has a fan belt been taken off an old 'Vair engine left 
sitting in a parts yard, and the belt had brown stains where it 
touched the pulleys?   Moisture is insidious; it creeps into places 
you don't expect.

Your fan belt will really appreciate polished pulleys.   And let the 
belt slip a bit... spray it with Black Magic or silicone or the like 
to LET it slip so it won't get stretched and flipped off during those 
times you get frisky with the clutch pedal... ESPECIALLY on earlies 
with steel fans.

I experimented a tad with red rubbing compound on an old belt to 
clean up the pulleys on one Corvair with that beige patina on its 
pulleys, rubbed the friction surfaces of the belt down with compound 
and ran the engine a while, worked pretty well... I did help out 
along the way with a repeat of the compound.   I believe I must have 
run that same fan belt on that car for a month after, and it never 
did wear out or flip off although I replaced it anyway.  I think it's 
still hanging on a nail in the shed.


>What belt you
>use is relatively unimportant.  I use belts from FLAPS and don't even buy by
>brand.  I buy by length and width code number.


Same here, brand names don't seem to matter a whole lot.


>Usually wear a belt in 5-6
>years or so enough that I am more comfortible changing them.   Pulley
>flanges must be true.  If the belt rides up and down in them then they are
>likely crushed and should be straightened or changed.  Is your generator
>mounted properly on the inboard side of the mounting bracket and not to the
>outside?  I know it is a pain but to change a 64 generator you have to
>remove the pulley to get at the bolts.  Don't bitch at me.  I didn't design
>it.


This is why I put alternators on the earlies in my camp.   Of course, 
they're no longer "numbers-matching" now...  ;)  But if a generator 
decides to quit, it's a lot harder to fix than if there's an 
alternator parked there instead, and the alternators do work better 
and present a little bit less load on the fan belt than the generator 
armature does, if weight is any measure.


>Other pulley alignments are critical too.  Is the idler cocked.  If it
>is a 4 speed car the driver might have to form new driving habits.  Don't
>downshift by just dropping it in the next lower gear and dumping the clutch.
>Can't get away with that much with the heavy fans.


Yea, what Smitty said.


>About the cooked engine.  You will be lucky if you don't experience a
>dropped valve seat or leaking O rings.  I don't know who Missy is but
>somebody would be walking if it were my car.


This seems to be a regular thing with younger female drivers...  I 
got a Dodge Neon for uber-cheap, had a leaky coolant issue and its 
high school senior female driver paid no attention to the warning 
lights and drove it one day until it simply wouldn't move any 
farther, got mad at it, left it on the side of the road.  Nephew got 
it for a song and a dance, traded it to me for money he owed me 
(which I hadn't expected to get back anyway) and although I had to 
put an engine in the car it still worked out nicely.

The poor defenseless engine in the Neon (once it finally started) had 
so much blowby the o2 sensor wouldn't work right and it kept throwing 
codes unless I disconnected the crankcase vent plumbing.   It also 
smoked...  and when we drained the oil from it before swapping it 
out, what came out of the crankcase had what looked like sediment in 
it, I suppose it was what used to be on the outsides of the piston 
skirts and cylinder walls before Miss Redlite-Colorblind finished with it.

Got the engine from a "pick-a-part" down the road that had a 
"U-Carry-it-out-U-keep-it" sale.   65 bucks and whatever one man can 
carry (not drag, carry) through the gate is his for 65 bucks.   That 
Neon engine got carried through the gate.   My daughter drives the 
car (gave it to her), and she's instructed to watch those lights on 
the dash.    Car runs well, not a bad deal at all for the pittance I 
have in it.


Corvair engines are at least as unforgiving about those overheat 
situations as anything else, since they run hot anyway and usually 
suffer worse if they're "run til they drop".    I've managed to nurse 
a Corvair over 20 miles on the highways after losing a belt and 
finding out there was no spare in the trunk (got borrowed for 
something else and wasn't replaced).   Drive it a few miles, heater 
running of course (in summer, even) until the light pops on or it 
starts pinging whichever happens first, stop immediately, cool, 
repeat.   This won't hurt the engine if you're careful.

Of course carrying the spare fan belt avoids having to do this sort 
of thing...



tony..