Driving the car down the dual carriageway and the battery light comes on and I lose power steering...

Started fine when I set off but it has been difficult to start on a few occasions. Do you think it just needs a new battery or alternator, or could this be something else?

 

Check the alternator belt's mabe

 

You have probably lost the alternator drive belt if the power steering has gone too.
Hopefully its not the dreaded 'bottom pulley loose' problem which can happen.

Mick

 

Yeah just popped and looked at mine the power steering belt and alternator are the same belt!

 

Ok, thanks for the advice.

Any chance of a pic so I know where I'm looking? I'm not good on this type of thing

 

What year/model car do you have?

Tony

 

I've had a look, belt has come off and was in the bottom of the engine bay. The belt looks ok, seems fairly new and isn't damaged. I've only had the car a week so i'm not sure when it's been changed.

Why would this just come off? Earlier it was mentioned about the bottom pulley becoming loose?

 

After 10 minutes searching on here I'm seeing the crank pulley has probably caused this and crank could now be damaged?

 

Ok, now its daylight I've been out and checked. Bottom pulley is solid and doesn't appear to be damaged or loose. The other belt is still on, is this for the aircon?

I just want to put the belt back on and then I'll take it to a garage to check the torque setting, do you think this is the best way forward?

Do I need to slacken the alternator off to get the belt back on, I assume it will be too tight otherwise?

 

Sounds as if it came off either because it was too loose, or because the pulleys aren't lined up.......although the latter usually causes wear.

Slacken off the alternator, and replace the belt. Retighten, and if you aren't sure HOW tight, have it checked, an electrical place or a decent garge will do that for you.

Also, DO check the belt BEFORE you refit it. When it came off, it may have caused damge to itself, and a new belt is cheaper than a problem in the future

 

you may need to adjust the alternator position to get it back on , and then adjust it again when you have fitted the belt to get the correct tension in it, your right to get it checked after refitting if you have no experience, to tight will put to much load the the bearings too loose and it will come off again ( hopefully thats all it was this time )but give it a go its fairly simple, only way to learn.

 

I fitted the belt back on this evening and although it seemed fine for a run round the block once I hit the main road it just came off again

It was tight enough to hold but something is making it drop off. The belt itself doesn't seem damaged and looks fairly new BUT it does seem to be fairly stretched i.e. when tightening the alternator backup it's nearly at the topof the bracket as if the belt is stretched. Could it just be a bad belt?

My dad is from an engineering background and he looked at the pulley and tested for vibration on inner and outer edges and it is slightly out but he didn't think it too be enough to cause the belt to just drop off.

I'll fit a new belt tomorrow to see if that helps, otherwise any suggestions? It's a 97 classic and has done just over 100k, is it possible the pulley just needs replacing and is distorted slightly? If so, should the other belt be dropping off too for the air con?

 

Put new belt on this evening, flew off and then I saw the pulley was wobbling and had worked loose. It was that loose I could turn the bolt holding it onto the shaft with my fingers!! Pulley is goosed but the camshaft itself looks ok from what I can tell but I'll only know tomorrow when it gets looked at

How do you know if the woodruff key is too worn, whats involved in replacing it? Should I just be able to pull it out with pliers, it looks like the inner gear for the cambelt sits half way across it?

 

Mike, I recently posted a thread on the subject of a wobbly pulley with some photos of a worn woodruff keyway / key:

https://www.scoobynet.com/general-te...20-engine.html

Having just got back from a work trip abroad, I'm going to be attempting a repair over the weekend. I will be posting photos of what I do, may be of interest to you!

 

Ordered a replacement pulley, key and bolt from Grade A which was amazing service to be honest, ordered at 11am came next day at 9am - £75 del!

Rocked car to turn crank and its confirmed the shaft had no damage. The old woodruff key still has enough on it to hold the new pulley.

As no-one could answer the question on correct torque setting I've set to 127nm.

Run it a few times now and no problems so far but I will be monitoring it each week and checking if torque is holding.

 

How did you tighten it up? Did you put it in gear and get someone to put their foot on the brake? I suspect that a lot of people do it this way, and that it may be a reason for it coming undone again, since the pulley will still move slightly as you are doing it up.

The correct method is to use a special tool to lock the pulley in place so that it cannot move. You can make one of these easily enough using a length of steel box section, drilled to accept two bolts of the correct diameter to fit into two of the holes on the pulley. If you are anywhere near Guildford, you can borrow the one I made.

 

Thanks for the offer mate, I'll see how it goes. I just put it in 5th with the handbrake on and then used a torque wrench which seems to have done the job