Sorry this took so long! The flash on the camera failed almost every time. Out of fifteen tries, these are the only decent ones I could get.
Sorry this took so long! The flash on the camera failed almost every time. Out of fifteen tries, these are the only decent ones I could get.
Now I suppose someone's going to tell me "That's not the alternator belt". LOL! That would mean I ordered the wrong part.
That's the alternator belt, and the alternator pulley.Originally Posted by Suzu
Who stripped the pulley bolt?
I don't know. Plenty of people have worked on this car in the 33 years I've owned it. I know for sure it wasn't me. (p.s. I haven't always been as broke as I am now)
Is the belt "too frayed" to be safe?
Without being there to see it for myself... I can't know.
Since you know how to tighten/ loosen it now, why not just err on the side of caution and change it?
I ended up going to a repair shop. Here's what happened:
There was nothing stripped; the pulley was turning along with my wrench, apparently, and that's why I couldn't tighten the item (nut or bolt, I am now PERMANENTLY confused on that score). The pulley itself had an inward bend in it. I hadn't seen it before because it was not showing when I looked, it must have been on the bottom. But it could clearly be seen with the engine running. The mechanic said it must have been hit by a rock.
So I now have a new belt, and a pulley with a spot that was banged out by the mechanic so that it will no longer eat up the belt. If he made a mistake, I'll know soon enough. He had no trouble removing the bolt for the power steering belt adjustment. Maybe I wouldn't have had trouble with it if I had tried it again since the last time I sprayed it and banged on the nut.
I learned what I did not know before this visit to the mechanic: that the alternator pulley is PART OF the alternator.
Bottom line: I am another $140 in debt. Even before this expense there was already going to be no Thanksgiving or Christmas, and now there will be very little heat this winter. It's either that, or don't pay my property tax bill. I think I'd rather keep the house and be cold for the winter. At least I will be able to stay dry.
The really bad news is that my oil pan gasket needs replacing, and they tell me it's a big job, 3-4 hours' worth of big. Makes me wish I still lived where you could rent bays with lifts and do your own work.
:crickets:
Glad you got it fixed.
$140 in debt is never good, but having your ride usable = priceless
As for your oil pan, I would want to verify that is your leak.
The pan is does not have a "gasket" per say, it's installed with "form in place gasket".
The pan is only there to hold oil, there is no oil pressure exerted on that joint.
Also the static oil level is BELOW the pan flange (gasket surface) so all the more reason it rarely leaks from that spot.
Far more likely is a leak higher up, that just make it LOOK like the pan is leaking.
A can of engine shampoo (and a garden hose) will go a long way to helping you find what is exactly leaking.
30 years of seepage can look pretty nasty.
Rust can cause pans to leak but generally presents in a different manner
(wet oil spots underneath dry flaking rust)
The other part of the equation is how much is it leaking?
Oil leaks should NOT be ignored, but they do need to be evaluated to know wether it is urgent or can wait for better weather.
As for doing the pan, several threads already exist
-I did mine without a lift, so I imagine you could too.
I changed the oil in springtime of this year and had not checked it since. I don't drive very much, and this van doesn't "burn" oil. A month or so ago the dashboard oil warning light came on, so I checked and it was a quart low. I added a quart and checked underneath the car. There's oil all around the oil pan and especially on the side closest to the driver's seat. You're right, I should make sure of where the leak is. I just figured that on a car this old, the oil pan not-a-gasket is a likely culprit. The oil has gone down by 1/4 quart since I added oil. That's after driving well under 1k miles, maybe not even 500. (I don't log the dates and miles of everything I do to/with this van, and my memory is not what it used to be.) And oil is getting expensive!
For the first 8 years that I owned the van, it lost half a quart of oil every 2,500 miles. Then one fine day my mechanic had it on a lift and happened to notice oil where it shouldn't be. This mechanic -- a Toyota freak working out of his own two-car garage which he had turned into the CLEANEST AND NEATEST auto shop you have ever seen (almost immaculate, and every bit as organized as an Auto Zone store) -- said it probably had come from the factory that way, because of where the leak was. And after he tightened that bolt, it never lost oil between oil changes, until now.
Last edited by Suzu; 11-22-2019 at 10:37 AM.
Is it really okay to shower the entire engine with a hose?
So long as you don't get any water in the blinker fluid reservoir, and cover the flux capacitor you'll be fine...
Get some simple green and a paint brush and have at it.
I don't know what your motivation is with a post like this. I don't mind being belittled or whatever, but I really do lack the sort of smarts needed to understand such things. (not the mechanical stuff, but the snide remarks)
Suzu, if it's leaking while sitting still it could be the oil level sensor seal. This item is mounted to the driver side of the oil pan and is below the oil level(This is the part that turns on oil level light on the dash)meaning it could drip oil anytime whether running, driving, or sitting still. One of my vans is currently leaking here and it has gotten everywhere from the wind while driving. You definitely want to start with some cleaning to find the source. Maybe try cleaning from the top of the oil pan down to see of the leak is coming from above before spending a lot of time in the cold scrubbing down everything under the "hood".
It means, use simple green and a paint brush to clean the engine/ bay up and then hose it off....
Spray down the engine with simple green (or whatever your choice of degreaser is), then take the 1-1/2, 2" paint brush and use that to clean with. Work the degreaser in to help loosen up the grime and whatnot on the engine. Then use some water to clean off the muck.
After that it should be easier to spot any leaks.
Not to hard, really.
Also, I know what it is to live in cold conditions... our daytime high lately is 40*, night time low of 10*. I typically get used to it as winter goes on. I have 8" of snow on the ground right now. I get it...
The other thing you could do is hit the carwash and use the nozzle to spray off the underside, maybe pay a kid a fiver to see if he can do it.
Flecker, somehow I doubt the Simple Green part of your comment is the part she's having trouble with. Maybe it's time to walk away from this one before you get banned again......
Thanks o! I don't see oil on the driveway. I think we have a few more days of 50+ weather coming up. That's good for me. I can get overheated when it's 60 out if I do enough.
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