I have noticed over the last week or so a somewhat high pitched noise coming from the engine compartment when I'm driving around. (speed 15 mph - 40 mph) Yesterday I was helping my good friend W. Roy Hunter. I mentioned the issue as we were going out to a store. Since Roy is a very good diagnostician he mentioned a few items and we both came back to the alternator belt being the culprit. We popped the hood and sure enough the alternator belt had lost about 1/4 of its normal width and was riding in the bottom of all of the related pulleys. The chirping was due to the belt being a little loose because of its wear.

We got a new belt and started to install it. When Roy was removing the fan he noticed that the water pump pulley was very corroded. In his words it felt and looked like a "cheese grater". He removed the pulley and we proceeded to the workshop to lock it in a vise to power sand the pulley grove to remove the corrosion and to make the groove smooth again. Next we painted it with some Rustoleum and heated the pulley with a torch and a heat gun to get the paint to dry quickly. (normal air dry time for Rustoleum is hours) We both agreed that the pulley was "eating the belt"

Roy reinstalled the belt and we tightened the alternator bolts (which we had to loosen to get the alternator to retract to fit the new belt on).

On the drive home the chirping sound was gone! It's a good thing we got the pulley cleaned up because it wouldn't take too much longer before the belt was a piece of spaghetti in thickness and would leave me stranded. Thanks Roy!

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Pete Williams, President emeritus - MBCA-International Stars (Eastern Mich.) Now Wi. & Az.
1985 300D Manual 4 speed Green Hen's tooth
1979 MGB triple black Az car nice
1969 back 1/2 of MGB (Az home built trailer)
1991 Volvo 245 Wagon Nice AZ Restored Gold Brick
1983 Jeep CJ7 37,600 Miles Summer use only

lemme know if the fix doesn't hold. I'm scrapping an 80 right now, and I'm gonna crush the engine after I pull the head, and a few other things. I could box up the pulleys and ship em to ya

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

Nice. I had a similar issue on my Dodge Dart once. Upon closer examination it turns out that the alternator was slightly misaligned with respect to the other pulleys. This was probably a result of me using a '63 alternator from the original slant six with the '79 360 out of a Cordoba that I'd installed along with cobbling together some brackets to get it mounted. Some strategically placed washers got it lined up enough to stop doing that.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

I had a similar issue on my '82 SD when I installed a junkyard engine.

We sanded he pulley twice but the shop involved recommended against trying to use something like rustoleum on it.

It stopped eating belts after the second sanding but I didn't keep the car long enough afterwards to know if the fix actually held or not.

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Mac
2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td
Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

The main reason for painting the water pump pulley was that we also sanded the rust from the front and rear flanges (flat surfaces) which exposed the raw metal. We sanded rust and bare spots on the pulley to prevent further rust and for cosmetics.

I'll watch the belt to ensure that our fix doesn't need more sanding to curb its belt eating appetite.

__________________
Pete Williams, President emeritus - MBCA-International Stars (Eastern Mich.) Now Wi. & Az.
1985 300D Manual 4 speed Green Hen's tooth
1979 MGB triple black Az car nice
1969 back 1/2 of MGB (Az home built trailer)
1991 Volvo 245 Wagon Nice AZ Restored Gold Brick
1983 Jeep CJ7 37,600 Miles Summer use only