Well, the old girl finally threw a fit on the first COLD morning we've had so far this winter. On my way to work around 0730, everything seemed fine, and bam the power steering loses assist. Immediately glanced at the gauges and saw the volt meter falling rapidly, along with the temp gauge rising. Yep, lost the belt.
Pulled over downtown Minneapolis and popped the hood. Sure enough, the belt was lying loosely around the pulleys. Further investigation revealed the idler pulley to be missing. Not seized, not snapped, just gone. Bolt and all. The threads in the head look just fine, so my only theory is that the bearings in the pulley seized causing it to get hot enough to weld itself to the steel spacer that aligns it with the rest of the pulleys. That spacer is staked to the bolt that holds the entire shebang to the head, kind of hard to explain without a picture but basically if the pulley seizes, the counter-clockwise rotation will effectively back the bolt out of the head and there she goes.
Normally, this wouldn't be a problem EXCEPT: none of the aftermarket pulleys come with the spacer. NONE. The only way to get one is a pulley/bolt/spacer assembly from the dealer. Fine... 4 times the price for an extra piece if steel. Then I learn that said assembly is on national backorder with no ETA, although there's 3 left on locator IN THE COUNTRY! Erg, fine. Plan B: drive 40 minutes round trip to brave -10 wind chills at the pick-n-pull. Lucky for me, there were at least a dozen WJ's on the lot, and the 3rd one I peeked at had an almost new idler pulley in it. Only had to walk 2 rows back, and it set me back $6.87.
I had the truck towed to my shop, where she got the new pulley, a new belt, and while I was in there a new thermostat and gasket along with a coolant flush. I'd been smelling the occasional whiff of coolant and the housing had a very small leak, plus I always do a 'stat after an overheat condition. Filled her with 50/50 global coolant and once again she's alive and well.
I really can't complain, though. It's a $400 vehicle that's cost me almost nothing in actual repairs. Even today's bill was less than $100, and that includes the ~5 mile tow.
Pulled over downtown Minneapolis and popped the hood. Sure enough, the belt was lying loosely around the pulleys. Further investigation revealed the idler pulley to be missing. Not seized, not snapped, just gone. Bolt and all. The threads in the head look just fine, so my only theory is that the bearings in the pulley seized causing it to get hot enough to weld itself to the steel spacer that aligns it with the rest of the pulleys. That spacer is staked to the bolt that holds the entire shebang to the head, kind of hard to explain without a picture but basically if the pulley seizes, the counter-clockwise rotation will effectively back the bolt out of the head and there she goes.
Normally, this wouldn't be a problem EXCEPT: none of the aftermarket pulleys come with the spacer. NONE. The only way to get one is a pulley/bolt/spacer assembly from the dealer. Fine... 4 times the price for an extra piece if steel. Then I learn that said assembly is on national backorder with no ETA, although there's 3 left on locator IN THE COUNTRY! Erg, fine. Plan B: drive 40 minutes round trip to brave -10 wind chills at the pick-n-pull. Lucky for me, there were at least a dozen WJ's on the lot, and the 3rd one I peeked at had an almost new idler pulley in it. Only had to walk 2 rows back, and it set me back $6.87.
I had the truck towed to my shop, where she got the new pulley, a new belt, and while I was in there a new thermostat and gasket along with a coolant flush. I'd been smelling the occasional whiff of coolant and the housing had a very small leak, plus I always do a 'stat after an overheat condition. Filled her with 50/50 global coolant and once again she's alive and well.
I really can't complain, though. It's a $400 vehicle that's cost me almost nothing in actual repairs. Even today's bill was less than $100, and that includes the ~5 mile tow.
