0ski_dwn_it

Guys,

The title says it all. I was driving my Dad's car home with my 1 yrs old, while dad was driving the vette after picking it up from the shop that just told me I needed a new ring job. Check the other post for details there.

Anyways he was following me and I saw him pull off the road for no reason. I stopped, turned around, and went back to see what now could be wrong.

He said the car made a loud screetching sound and then the AFR went way lean and it just shut off. I could smell something burning and it smelled electrical. I thought maybe the shop left a SP wire too close to the headers and they burned through. I lifted the hood and everything looked OK. I went and tried to start the car and the voltage was ~9.0 volts. It was a brand new battery ~ 1 month old. So I went to the alternator ~2 yrs old. I felt it carefully and there was absolutely no heat that would indicate a bad bearing. I went to a local fire station and they had some jumper cables. Jumped the car and voltage went back to 11.5 V, but the car would not turn over. I thought that the engine seeced up at first. I then got a screwdriver and popped the belt off.

I tried to start it again and it fired right up. Shut it off and went out to check the Alternator and AC which I pretty much knew it was gonna be. Sure enough the AC pulley was froze tighter than crap. Here is the question:

Is there a way to by pass the AC pulley or to free it up? I need to go get the car and take it to the dealership. They are having the local drag races at the airport here and I wanted to go out and beat on some camaros/mustangs. I know its not running were it should be, but I might as well get every last beating out of the engine now.

Can you guys help me figure this out? thanks

VetBoy89

Same thing happened to me on my 96 Z28. Luckily I was walking distance to Kragens. I just bought a shorter belt and bypassed the AC pump. :cuss

0ski_dwn_it

Is the routing the same as on yours? And how did you route it and what length belt did you use?

MrJay

I had this happend to my Beretta on a trip I was going from SC to CA, I had to go to the dealer and get a belt that was for a Beretta that did not have AC I dont think GM made any Corvettes with out the AC but maybe you can still get a shorter belt and see if you can by pass the AC.
Or a nother thing you can do is just get a new cluch and change it.

Jay

VetBoy89

I've dealt with the guy at Kragen's before, he's been there for about 200 years I think, anyway, he found me a belt that he said would fit without the AC and I just routed it bypassing the AC. I think you should be able to do the same with the Vet, I looked at my 89 and it looks like it can be done easy enough. I think some of the guys here on the forum have bypassed the AC to increase HP, I'm sure they will chime in.

0ski_dwn_it

Thanks guys. A size and routing diagram would probably be too much to request right? :lol:

dad is on his way up with the trailor. Wish I could just pick up a belt and install it along the road to save with the hassle of pissing with finding belts, etc.

JonM

Routing diagram should be on your fan cowl ...and I would think a piece of string would get you a length. Just route the string bypassing the AC, them measure the string minus a couple inches for the tensioner.

MrJay

After looking at my car I dont think you can do this because you dont have any place to put the belt after by passing the AC.

Jay

ZylaRace

Not to rain on your cloudy day, but, the tensioner is right next to the AC. (I'm pretty sure they did not reloca it in the 89.) I'm not sure how the AC could be skipped and still use the tensioner, but obviously it has been done. Maybe skip right down to the AIR pump?
The L98's I've seen sold w/o AC, used a dummy pully in place of the AC.

Anybody have a diaghram they can send him?

0ski_dwn_it

I thnk I have looked at it before and determined there is no easy way to by-pass it. I do have an idea. If the existing pulley is on a shaft, couldn't I just pull that off, and put a pulley with a pressed in bearing there to replace the original pulley? Not sure, its been over a year since I took it apart. I forgot to mention that I can spin the front part of the clutch, the pulley is frozen solid though. WOnder what the chances of it being free are when it cools down? Maybe if I don't run the AC it will last a while till I can just elinminate the AC all together. Its a waste of weight anyways. :lol:

VetBoy89

You're absolutely right, no way to bypass it and use the tensioner. I have a diagram but I don't have anyway to post it. Can I send it to someone and you can post it for him, it's 43kb?

0ski_dwn_it

Well here is what happened. I just got home! What a friggin nightmare this thing has become!

We went to the car along the road with the trailor. I figured that I might as well take a quick look at it so I pulled off the front clutch assembly with the splined hub. It appeared to be free so the internals of the compressor were assumed to be OK. I then inspected the pully. It has about 1/8" play back and forth. I could tell it was seezed to the coils housing. I said, well I might as well try to pry it off. I started to and it was pretty well frozen up. After some bumping the pulley finally freed up and came off. There was quite a bit of crud between the coil hub and the pulley. I cleaned all the surfaces up real well and went back over to inspect the rest of the unit. More specifically the coil hub itself. Sure enough the heat caused the *packing* to start to melt and ooze onto the hub and front clutch assembly. I cleaned as much off as possible and everything seemed to move freely. I knew using the AC would be off limits until a new clutch was purchased, but who cares. I just want to race tomorrow. I put everything back together and started the car and there was a tick. tick, tick noise. So I went out and looked. The belt was off a tad and riding up on the AC pulley. So I stopped the engine and bumped it back to it correct spot. Started the car and no more ticking. Dad gave me the thumbs up and all seemed great. I looked at my volts after Dad pulled the jump box off and the volts were decreasing steadily and my battery light was on in the message center. I said what the hell. I spun the alternator when it first quit and it was free as a bird. All of a sudden the engine made a hurendous screatching sounds and smoke was rolling out of the hood. Dad was jumping up and down telling me to kill the engine. It did not take me long to make that deduction myself LOL. But before I did I made eye contact with the oil pressure just to make sure it wasn't that. It read 45 PSI.

I stopped the car and was thoughly fuming. If Dad wasn't there I can garantee there would have been a wrench or worse though the windshield or worse though the hood. I called the car every name in the book until dad directed my attention to the lady sitting on her front porch about 30 feet away watching our progress or should I say regress. I went to the trailor and pulled the ramps, got in the car and pulled it up on, screetching and all. It sounded like 25 cats dying.

Took the car to the dealership and planned to just gut the coil hub out. It needed a new one anyways. So I pulled the belt off and drove the car into a bay. Went to pull the front clutch piece off and the hub was totally free???? I was like what the hell! I reached down and spun the idler and water pump, both free. I thought OK. I am going to go nuts on this thing. I went over to the alternator and it was froze tight! I was just standing there skaking my head when dad returned. I said you see if you can get that AC pulley to move. So went to grab it with both hand to give it a mighty twist and it moved as free as can be. He looked up and said what was keeping it from turning. I said its not that. Its the f'in alternator. He said it can't be. Then he said I think your car is really trying to put you in the looney bin. Upon inspection of the alternator, here when the AC locked up, it must have broke the lower alternator part of the alternators bracket right off! At first I thought it broke the big one that goes to the engine, but it just broke the housing of the alternator. I called Autozone and spoke with my trusty buddy that works there. I asked if i bought it there and if it would be covered. It was! Thank god. So I went down and exchanged it free of charge. Installed it and all is great! I can race tomorrow!

Sorry for such a long post. This forum is like therapy for me though. If I kept it all bottled up, you would surely see me on CNN :lol:

Well all I have to take a shower and have a beer or ten.

ShawnZR-1

:eek: :crazy:
That's one hellova saga there!!!! Funny read though (since it didn't happen to me :lol: )... 25 cats dying! LOL!!! :lol: :lol: Good luck tomorrow! :smash:

0ski_dwn_it

Yeah about the only thing else bad that could have happen tonight was this:

This really happened

Some guys robbed a local bank, right near were the car broke down, and fled into the woods on foot. There were cop cars flying up and down the highway the whole time. Get this. They robbed a bank in this Very small town of about 150 people! wth kind of idiots would risk going to jail for a heist of that size :lol: At most they probably got off with 1K and that is if they came out with all the cash :)

This did not happen, but was in the back of my mind. Watch them come out and try to steal my car as a get-a-way vehicle. Then again that might not have been a bad thing. :lol:

We did have several cops slow way down to take a close look at us while we were poking under the hood. I tried to talk dad into running as fast as he could when he saw the next cop to see what they would do. but he said it was too hot out. :rolleyes: At least something would have been funny about the whole situation.

I'm starting to realize how women can forget what it is like to have a child and want to have another. The whole time they are birthing the kid they swear at you and tell you they will kill you if you ever make them go through this again. Well I am starting to view my car the same way. I am actually starting to look forward to working on it tomorrow again. SICK! :smash: