So I'm driving up I-75 returning home from my evacuation to Orlando following Dennis hitting my home. I hear this horrible metal shutter, then a clanging sound. I immediately throw it into neutral and pull off the road, pop the hood, and prepare for the worst.

What happened? The three bolts holding the underdrive pully in place ( I have a Metco style interchangeable 4# pulley purchased from REM) sheared apart. The pulley was sitting up near the front driver's side of the engine compartment all by itself-- can't believe it didn't fall out, with the three bolt heads still in place in the pulley. The belt itself shredded but wrapped completely around the flywheel turning the radiator fan. Other than spending 30 minutes and a big knife to get the belt out, a few dings on the radiator shroud, and now no working supercharger, I think I made off fairly well. Now the question is what next? The bolts must not have been seated well, but I installed the pully over a year ago. Here's three ideas I thought of and any inputs are appreciated.

1) Find a broken bolt removal kit. The three bolts are still in the crank pully, 2 are broken off below flush, and the third is barely protruding. Due to tight quarters I don't think I can even get a drill in there. New bolts and a belt, and I'm back in business.

2) Same as 1 but weld something like an Allen wrench onto the bolts so I have something to get leverage on. I used lock-tight, or whatever the instructions said to use so breaking them off will be quite a feat.

3) I noticed the new pulleys available don't require using the three bolts holes into the crank pulley, so I could install that and not even have to remove those bolts. A bit more expensive but seems to be the most rapid and least difficult choice.

What do you think? btw I did get nearly 16 mpg on the rest of my drive back without the supercharger turning, with no ill effects noted. Before that, best I got on the highway was 14.

jason

 

1.NO
2.NO
3.No

Fisrt i would check and see if your using the right pulley. Maybe you were using a 99 stlye without the adapter ring.I experianced this firsthand. It would wobble like crazy but i would think you would have seen that. If i was you i would pull the crank pulley off and have a shop pull em out especially if you used locktite. Do you remember if ou used blue or red locktite. Blue you can probably get out yourself but if you used red chances are slim. I havent seen the new style pulleys where they dont use the 3 bolts so i cant help you on that. Honestly i cant see how else they would hold it on.

 

The new pulley that jdm sells mounts on a bracket similar to the factory setup, and uses a spindle rather than the three bolts. Here is a link:

http://www.teamjdm.com/shop/product_...products_id=33

I did use the blue locktite. And I didn't have a mounting sleeve for the pulley. I torqued the bolts down tight enough that the wobble wasn't noticeable -- and I remember distinctly checking. Thanks REM.

 

Still not sure about how that pulley mounts. I think the center still gets mounted to the 3 bolts and just the outer is interchangeable. Maybe someone whos using it will chime in. I guess if it mounts like you think than you could just grind down the one sticking out and use the new one. I would make sure about the pulley first being the right one cause if they gave you the wrong one you should make a call to them. Did the pulley center or did you have to center it. If you had to center it then you had the wrong one. You can always still check by putting it on the crank pulley and see if it fits tight. If its loose then call.

 

Yup; go with one of these and it will NEVER! come off

 

LMAO. Those must be the ones everyones cuttin off

 

It might NEVER come off but it might wear out and start making a horrible noise. I just took my caged 4lb lower off due to the bearing or something having to do with the spindle off and replaced with a metco 4lb interchangable. Ran the caged pulley for 60K miles or more. Noise is gone and looks a lot cleaner w/o the cage.

Later
Damon