Hello all,
I was hoping for some advice. I have an 82 diesel vanagon and I was cruising downhill at about 70 mph (obviously too fast for the stock diesel, but I was at the very end of a 700 mile roadtrip and I got a little frisky) and all of a sudden it felt like something snapped. I initially thought it was the throttle cable, but as I pulled over, my battery light turned on and I was still able to accelerate, although with greatly reduced power and smoke from the exhaust. I made it the remaining mile and a half home, where my husband discovered the alternator belt was destroyed. Would this be the cause of the decreased power and smoke? If not, do you have any suggestions on what to check?
Likely a piece of the alt belt made it's way into your timing belt and caused the engine to jump time. Very important to verify and correct it before driving further as valves can get bent.
libbybapa wrote:Likely a piece of the alt belt made it's way into your timing belt and caused the engine to jump time. Very important to verify and correct it before driving further as valves can get bent.
Andrew
Agreed, a diesel could run a month without an alternator belt on a fully charged battery. The timing cover should have prevented something from getting in there, but I would verify the cam and pump timing. If you are going to this trouble, I'd go ahead and plan on replacing the timing belt and tensioner.
The older metal covers did a very poor job of keeping crap out of the belt. There was no backing plate around the cylinder head. The alt belt getting sucked in is particularly common as it is spinning at the correct angle. Additionally a lot of folks seem to feel the timing belt cover is not important to replace. Go figure.
I have an 82 diesel Vanagon and just had the exact same thing happen to me. Except that both belts were replaced and brand new as of friday. Installed by a well respected Vw shop. Got up to a whopping 65mph, belt broke, battery light came on, speed dropped to 50......Loss of power & a little smoke. Luckily on my way home......and a few miles from the garage that serviced me on friday......Parked it out back put the keys in the drop box and left them a note.........Stalled in first gear at an intersection. Didn't even get in 20 miles on the new belts......?!. Its a water cooled diesel so the lower belt was intact and I'm assuming the water pump was still working off of that belt.......Did you replace the Timing belt? Was anything bent ? Mine is at the shop and wont get looked at until monday or tuesday. Having a bout of momentary anxiety..........?!
Sorry to hear of your troubles.
If yours is like mine, there are only two belts- Timing and Aux.
The small belt runs the water pump and the alternator. If that breaks the van must be stopped within seconds (what time it takes to pull over and stop), or you are guaranteed to at the very least ruin your cyl. head from overheating, followed closely by crank and rod damage from thinned out oil from overheating.
