A sad end to a weekend cruise....

[jpaitala]

I was driving home from grocery shopping and passed a slow moving vehicle with moderate acceleration. At the same time I felt a "bump" in the vehicle and lost the alt & power brakes & steering power.

Picture below tells it all... :( :(

http://www.juhapekka.com/pictures/problem.jpg


Any ideas of expenses of the repair?
Has the radiator to be taken out before getting to the problem area??

Thanks.

[patrick m.]

you will need to inspect the fan blade for damage, any damage will require replacement of the blade.
other wise, from the picture it looks like you just need a water pump pulley.(and belt)
good luck.

[CleviteKid]

You should be able to repair this without pulling the radiator, but if you do remove the grille and radiator, it might make the job a whole lot less frustrating.

Sorry about your bad luck - I had not heard of a water pump pulley fracturing before.

Dr. Lee :cool:

[CareyWeber]

jpaitala,

I have swaped my fan clutch without removing the radiator.

Now would be a good time to replace all the hoses and antifreeze. I can't believe anyone could replace the lower radiator hose on these trucks without having the radiator out. It's also a go timme to clean the radiator.

I'd also look at the block heater if it shows any signs of seepage I'd replace it too.

I think I'd look at getting a new fan maybe a 21" duramax fan.

ps thanks for the warning on the waterpump pulley I'll be checking mine cause I'm now at 178,000 miles.

[whatnot]

To get the fan off you only need to remove the upper part of the fan shroud, then take the 4 nuts off. I had mine off a couple weeks ago to clean the clutch off. (the fins were packed full of dirt)

[jpaitala]

Thanks guys for the sympathy, it doesn't feel so bad anymore. Especially when told that you don't have to remove the radiator to replace the pulley.

Hopefully there's nothing more to it, since I had to drive 3km to home without the pulley.

[markrinker]

My truck #1 had a similar failure. Under power, the water pump seized and fractured. In my case, the fan hit the radiator...so everything was replaced.

[99gmccrew]

That looks like a lot of damage. You have motivated me to change my belt. Good luck with your repairs. Its always something. Kind of a love hate relationship we have with our trucks.

[jpaitala]

Removing the pulley without removing the radiator wasn't so big task as tought. It was real easy task, so if anyone faces this same problem don't be afraid of it.

I will post pics of the exploded pulley later today when I get home after work. There has to be some sort of manufacturing error on the pulley...

[CareyWeber]

Do you have anyupdates/pics?

[jpaitala]

Sorry for so long delay, but my ISP was down and I could upload anything to my website.
The installation was real easy, looked much worse. But it took only 60min to complete the whole installation.

Here's two pics of the exploded pulley...
http://www.juhapekka.com/pictures/pulley1.jpg

http://www.juhapekka.com/pictures/pulley2.jpg

[JohnC]

Was this ever in a front end collision? I've seen pullies like this before...

[More Power]

Check your belt tensioner, and make sure it can rotate freely without creaking and groaning. I've seen these tighten but not release when the bushings were worn/dry, which creates more load on all rotating accessories and belt.

MP

[jpaitala]

Originally posted by JohnC:
Was this ever in a front end collision? I've seen pullies like this before... No front end collision...

[rustypig]

Interesting...if the pictures show what I think I'm seeing, the pulley has been cracked for some time. The dirty/rusty looking cracked areas have been there for some time. The shiny new fractures and the area's that are broken at a 60-90 degree angle (length wise along the metal) are the "instantaneous" fracture zone. The previously cracked areas appear to be a significant portion of the cracked area, meaning it's been slowly fracturing/fatiguing for a while now.
There are a lot of reasons this could happen I suppose, overtorque on the bolts, mis-matched torque, material failure, damage from external forces (on or off the vehicle during maintenance...like some joker using vice grips to hold the pulley still when removing the fan.) All it takes sometimes is a small gouge, deep scrape/crack...the stresses from harmonics will do the rest over time and the crack progresses un-noticed until...
What it all really means is that I now will be inspecting a new area periodically, along with the damper pulleys etc...

[tom.mcinerney]

Thanks, Rusty. When the image loaded I said to myself, "Boy that looks like a serious fatique failure".

Mine had the same area with paint replaced by , well, rust. I scrubbed and repainted my pulley. When i dismantled my clutch/fan/pulley, i was shocked by the quantity of road-salt/aluminum-oxide/aluminum-chloride(not sure??) that had formed a gasket between the fan and clutch mating surfaces. I made a note that that might become problemmatic. The clutch screens the pulley from 'road-mist'(?), yet we see the lost paint in the demolition zone.

Not to disagree with any suggested causes above, i'd like to point out that the pulley was probably stamped/spun or hydroformed; there could be stresses in the hub from back then, a touch of rust at the bolt hole began the crack ...or if the pulley mtg face was never really flat, the bolt tension 'sprung it' to conform to the waterpump drive hub...??...