A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To Soccer Practice...

[NorthWet]

... and it was only funny because my son (and not me) was driving.

 

My son was getting drive-time in driving us in Christine to soccer practice. Got off the freeway, and I notice that the wipers are a little slow, so I glance over at the voltmeter (it has had battery/charging issues lately). Except I got distracted by the string of red lights under the gauge cluster. Ok, thought I, the alternator failed. Mentioned this to my son (aka "Commander Observant"), and he says, yeah, and the steering feels heavy.

 

Oh.

 

Ok, broken belt. But Christine has dual belts to the alt and PS pump... Hmmm... dual failure? That doesn't make much sense.

 

Oh, well. Only 3 miles from practice, and I have a team full of kids waiting for us, so we press on. Responsibility takes precedence over what my tired mind thinks is a soft failure. Drive another mile and I see the voltage gauge drop down to too-low-to-run values. So, I instruct my son to take the next exit and find a parking lot. (BTW, my son has never experienced PS failure, so a downhill turn in the rain proves, ....hmmm... interesting.) Pull into lot, pop the hood, and...

 

Alternator is standing still, and the (intact) belts are not moving. Crank pulley is not moving either. WOW!!!

[Turbone]

Spun the key off the crank? Or did the car have the dampner type pulley, which seperates after time.

Or did the car just die and you guys didnt know it?

[Snowman]

Did the engine get hot at all from the water pump not spinning?

 

 

Two years ago, I had the pulley bolt come loose while I was driving around town. I saw the lights come on and the voltmeter drop and started looking for a place to pull over. Before I could get off the road, I heard a loud thud and saw the bolt go rolling across the intersection! I finally got off the road, not before the car boiled over, then I ran out into the intersection, picked up the bolt, put it back on, and drove home.

[NorthWet]

Yup, spun the crankbolt most of the way out. With a 12mm wrench, an 8" crescent wrench, and a screwdriver I got the pulley back in place and the bolt mostly tightened. Had to wait for my wife to give me a jump (after we completed trip to practice to cancel it and make sure the girls got home OK), then drove it home. Hadn't checked the coolant level well enough, and boiled almost all of the water out by the time I got home. Spent 15 minutes and 5 gallons of water to get the temp down and the system somewhat stable. I will see tomorrow if the HGs are mostly ok.

 

I discovered a couple other loose fasteners, so I will have to check things over. I haven't touched the engine on Christine other than to replace the t-stat, so my guess is somebody did some less than stellar work on it before we bought it.

[Ross]

my guess is somebody did some less than stellar work on it before we bought it.

 

Don't you hate that? They probably knew it had probs when they sold it too.

[xoomer]

I had a similar problem on one of my k cars. everytime I would do pads. (quite frequently) I would put both bolts back in place and snug them down properly per my Manual.. the top bolt would back itself back out and drop on the road somewere.. I would go looking and find it and stick it back in place.. go home and put it back in and it wouldn't fall out again (atleast until I put new pads back on this thing) then it would do it once and I'd put the bolt back in and it wouldn't do again..