Dammit

The damn bug broke down on me again today. It started with a whirring
noise at idle, which fortunately I was at a place where I could stop
the car. I opened the hood..and I have smoke from the alternator.

After I burned a finger on the pulley nut I left it alone so it would
get it cooled off. After I got the pulley nut off, and removed the
outer sheave and the belt, I saw the woodruff key partially sticking
up at me. And there was play between the pulley adapator and the
alternator shaft. So I had to tap on the woodruff key to push it back
into its slot in order to slide the pulley adapter off of the
alternator shaft.

And then I found the problem. The spacer was gone. The big
one..between the rear alternator bearing inner race, and the center
part of the pulley...it was turned to dust. Completely gone. And the
front face of the alternator was being machined by the center part of
the pulley.

How in the hell could that even happen? Fortunately the alternator
still spins free, no noise, and no play in the shaft. But I have no
idea how that spacer piece could just get obliterated like that. I
found enough parts in garage to fix it and will do so tomorrow...but I
have a strange suspicion this will happen again unless I figure out
why it happened the first time.

Any ideas?

Chris

Did you use the correct number of spacer shims?

Maybe this link will help:

http://www.vw-resource.com/

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

On Feb 13, 10:39*pm, " > wrote:
> The damn bug broke down on me again today. It started with a whirring
> noise at idle, which fortunately I was at a place where I could stop
> the car. I opened the hood..and I have smoke from the alternator.
>
> After I burned a finger on the pulley nut I left it alone so it would
> get it cooled off. After I got the pulley nut off, and removed the
> outer sheave and the belt, I saw the woodruff key partially sticking
> up at me. And there was play between the pulley adapator and the
> alternator shaft. So I had to tap on the woodruff key to push it back
> into its slot in order to slide the pulley adapter off of the
> alternator shaft.
>
> And then I found the problem. The spacer was gone. The big
> one..between the rear alternator bearing inner race, and the center
> part of the pulley...it was turned to dust. Completely gone. And the
> front face of the alternator was being machined by the center part of
> the pulley.
>
> How in the hell could that even happen? Fortunately the alternator
> still spins free, no noise, and no play in the shaft. But I have no
> idea how that spacer piece could just get obliterated like that. I
> found enough parts in garage to fix it and will do so tomorrow...but I
> have a strange suspicion this will happen again unless I figure out
> why it happened the first time.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Chris

On Feb 14, 10:07*am, Jim Ed > wrote:
> Did you use the correct number of spacer shims?
>
> Maybe this link will help:
>
> http://www.vw-resource.com/
>

Yes...what happened was 'revenge of taiwan'. The front of the
alternator has that little 'spacer' between the inner bearing race and
the middle part of the pulley. The pulley seats up against that
spacer. I thought the spacer had turned to dust. It didn't, what
happened was the middle part of the pulley, the piece with the slot
for the woodruff key, wore down right where the spacer rides. That
allowed the entire pulley assembly to move in towards the face of the
alternator, and when it made contact it started machining out the
front of the alternator, making the expensive noises and getting very
damn hot.

I put in a new spacer, new pulley, and drove it home.

Aftermarket parts just suck some times.

Chris

On Feb 14, 7:41*pm, " > wrote:
> On Feb 14, 10:07*am, Jim Ed > wrote:
>
> > Did you use the correct number of spacer shims?
>
> > Maybe this link will help:
>
> >http://www.vw-resource.com/
>
> Yes...what happened was 'revenge of taiwan'. The front of the
> alternator has that little 'spacer' between the inner bearing race and
> the middle part of the pulley. The pulley seats up against that
> spacer. I thought the spacer had turned to dust. It didn't, what
> happened was the middle part of the pulley, the piece with the slot
> for the woodruff key, wore down right where the spacer rides. That
> allowed the entire pulley assembly to move in towards the face of the
> alternator, and when it made contact it started machining out the
> front of the alternator, making the expensive noises and getting very
> damn hot.
>
> I put in a new spacer, new pulley, and drove it home.
>
> Aftermarket parts just suck some times.
>
> Chris

I have had this happen to me on 3 generators and 2 alternators. I
suspected that it was cheap pulleys however it also seems to happen
quicker if I don't put enough spacers around the belt and then do not
tighten it down enough... OR I think maybe the spacers have thinned
out over the years... so I added an extra one last time... AND I
adjusted the "in-out" alignment of the alternator/generator on the
stand so that the belt was perpendicular to the face of the alternator/
generator (the top and bottom pulleys were exactly in line.

So by getting the best (German) pullies, adding an extra spacer,
making sure that there is no rotational play on the pulley shaft
because of a worn out woodruff key, and aligning the top and bottom
pulleys you will minimize the wear..... oh and if you are cheap like
me you will also grind down the inside pulley along the outside where
it would grind into the face of the alternator/ generator so that you
can get more mileage out of it.

KWW
'65 Beetle (The Inside Out Cow)
'64 Beetle (The Blue Wave)