Before I took my first trip in my motorhome, I had a new battery, alternator and belts installed. Approximately an hour down the road, a belt breaks. I was towed to an RV repair shop where all three alternator belts were replaced. The next day I went on my way and after about another hour, the engine was overheating and one of the new belts broken. This time I had my RV towed home. I don't know if I should try to get it repaired again or just give up. I have put quite a lot into repairs up to now. Any ideas of what's wrong?
2007-11-11 09:01:53 · 10 answers · asked by trish857 2 in Cars & Transportation ➔ Maintenance & Repairs
you mention '3 alternator belts' - i've seen double-pulley alternators that have 2 belts, but are you generically referring to all of your fan belts? anyway - could be a couple of things - belts could be extremely over-tightened, but i would be surprised that happened twice.
it could also be that if your belts are also running your water pump or air conditioner that one of these units is bad (ie, seized bearing), and when the pulley won't spin properly but the belt is being driven by the crank, the friction quickly burns the belt off.
i would suggest having all components that are part of the belt drive system checked (even the new alternator) to make sure each pulley is spinning correctly.
other than that, my only guess is that there may be something rubbing against them that shouldn't be (improperly mounted hose for example) - check carefully to see if this is the case.
2007-11-11 09:10:17 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am not sure what you are asking but yes your alternator belt can break and fall off while you are driving the vehicle. I think you might be saying the alternator froze up? If so the belt will continue to turn but the pulley on the alternator could have froze. Then at some point the friction of the stopped pulley on the alternator burnt the belt and it broke and fell off. Once the belt broke or was taken off yes you are still able to drive the car for some amount of time. So yes you can continue to drive the vehicle. How far and how long is any ones guess. After some amount of time and miles the battery will go dead and the car will start to run bad. At some point it will die and then it will not start. You may be able to start the car with a jump start but it will not remain running as the battery is really dead. Again all the other questions as to how far and how long you can drive and restart the car is all up to how good the battery was to start and how many miles you went. You could drive 10 miles and stop the car and then in the AM it might restart.
2016-04-03 08:04:52 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes it could be a bad bearing on one of the components the belt drives. Check all the accessories on the circuit that the broken belt was on. Another is the fan clutch seizing and causing an overload of this belt.
On higher mileage units I have had pulleys that wear out and the belt sits too low on them. This causes slippage and breakage. Check that the belts are even with the pulley tops.
The crank pulleys are usually the first to wear out.
Good luck,
I am quite sure this is easily fixed.
2007-11-11 09:22:54 · answer #3 · answered by Bert from Brandon 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The belts are not tensioned properly, the pulleys are not lined up properly, the wrong size belt is being installed, or there is a pulley cutting one of the belts.
2007-11-11 09:06:45 · answer #4 · answered by Dan H 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
check these things
alignment of pulleys between crank and alternator. sight down the pulleys to see if they are in allignment
belt tension. belts that are too tight will break quickly and stuff the bearings in the alternator
2007-11-11 09:08:15 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Check the next set of new belts be sure they fit in the pulley groves right. I'm suspicous of that new alternator not haveing proper grove size.
2007-11-11 10:30:12 · answer #6 · answered by hotvw1914cc 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The belt has been improperly installed (the pulleys have been ''crossed'') OR, a pulley has become out of line.
2007-11-11 09:05:15 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
you either got a burr on one of the pulleys or pulley is out of line. just my opinion. husband is mechanic and thats what he told me to say. good luck
2007-11-11 09:05:47 · answer #8 · answered by ~~HEARTS~~ 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
could be that the belts are to tight and that is causing them to break. or they were not put on correctly and are rubbing on something and breaking due to that. maybe something run by the belts is starting to seize up and causing the belts to break
2007-11-11 09:07:33 · answer #9 · answered by hermitofnorthdome 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Misalignment in pulleys.
2007-11-11 09:07:46 · answer #10 · answered by polkan47 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋