Cascade Crew

Xophertony · Last edited by Xophertony on Tue Mar 07, 2006 11:21 pm; edited 1 time in total

some of you may know i had the brilliant idea of replacing my bad alternator in the v6 with one from a junkyard. my instinct told me this was wrong, but i thought "what the hell, i am selling it. time to stop putting new parts in it". that was where i was wrong.

i put the JY alternator in after having it tested at NAPA. they told me it was fine.. i hooked it up and went for a drive. all was well. issue solved. but i decided to drive it from my home in hillsboro to school on 82nd to further test it and to see if the t-tops had any more leaks (it was raining).

as i am driving down the freeway i am keeping a good eye on the charge-o-meter.. all is well. it's reading ~13.5V. right about when i get to the US26/I-5 interchange (giant mess by omsi) i notice it drop to 11V. uh-oh. stop and go traffic. no where to pull off. i deside "it will make it to the Napa on 82nd... i'll pick up a NEW alternator and buy a 13MM socket and wrench and install it in the parking lot.

well, traffic lets up and the guage is droping fast. by this time i have turned off ALL accesorys accept the wipers. i get to about 33rd and its almost at 8V. i decide ia m going to pull off on 53rd and call for a tow. i have left early enough that i can tow the car home and still make it to class on time. (i usualy study w/classmates before class for an hour). the car starts to lurch.. i mannage to get off the freeway and halfway down the ramp before the car died completly.. i coasted to the intersection, just missing the greenlight that would allow me to coast into the gas station parking lot. the car stops. i got a nice gentalmen in a 65 chevy pickup and his son to help me push. poor kid could not see over the wheel Shocked

.. but we managed to get it across the busy 4-lane road and into the lot. i bought him a soda and a bag of chips.

at this point i had a brilliant idea. chris (quasitraction) is kinda parting out his camaro, it's a V-belt 2.8! and he lives just up the street. i call him and ask if i can borrow/buy his alternator. he brings a wrench set and we have the thing swapped inside of 30minutes from me calling him. the gas station attendants are amazed. there are some slight differences: his belts are actualy "V" shaped, mine are shaped like a trapazoid (think gold bar, or flat top pyramid) and are about 1/3 wider. also only two of the three bolts line up. he gives me a jump and she fires up. we kinda both expected the belt to go flying but it stayed on there! i was on my way and could not have done it without chris. thanks buddy Thumbs up

. plan was (since it's not the right alternator) to replace it tomorow and then have it back to him on thursday.. that was the plan.

so i follow burside from 53rd up to 82nd (about 1.5 miles) and just as i am passing chrises house (about 1/3rd of a mile) i hear this *thwap* *thwap* i pull over and pop the hood. the belt is starting to split. ok, no problem... the smaller pully is tearing off the bealt it does not need. i figure once a bit seperates it will fall off and i will still be in bussiness. about halfway there it stops.. cool. but the charge guage starts droping.. fast since i did not start with a full battery this time. by the time i got to school it was at ~9V. upon inspection it had compltly thrashed the belt. and then thrown it (it was still hanging there)

so after class i had AAA tow me home. oh, and the t-tops don't leak anymore Smile

EDIT* in response to why we did not change pullys: we did not have a large enough socket.

iansane · Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 11:15 pm Post subject:

Whoa, sounds like an exciting day!

What about swapping pulleys from your alt to the one that's on there?

Quasi-Traction · Posted: Wed Mar 08, 2006 9:06 am Post subject:

I swear it must be like a curse with me or something. I gave you my column....your brights stopped working. I give you my alternator....you break the belt. I think maybe I shouldn't sell/loan you any more parts off my car. I think my camaro hates your bird or something. If you want, I can give you my belt and see if that will work.....don't let me forget to give you your old alternator back, so you can have it for a core when you get yoru new one.

Thank God for AAA. They've bailed my ass out more than once.

Quasi-Traction · Posted: Wed Mar 08, 2006 1:43 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the help scrapping the toyota today!

"crewbies helping crewbies, that's what its about yo."

Xophertony · Posted: Wed Mar 08, 2006 2:43 pm Post subject:

indeed. that thing is junked. i am sure your neighbors are glad the "eysore" is gone. thanks for the burger Razz