Alternator Pulley Play

[CoryN]

So in the middle of Wife Appeasement 3.0 I was granted a couple of hours to attend to the buggy today. I haven't touched it since Fredricksburg, in fact it still has the water spots from unloading it in the rain.

Anyway, I got the breather box installed so it will hopefully stop puking oil out of every orifice, and I got the fuel pressure regulator on so hopefully it will stop stalling out on me.

I got it fired back up and it was rattling something awful. It sounded like the fan again. So I pulled the fan belt off and its not the fan, its the alternator pulley. It rattles back and forth a good bit, not front to back but around in a circle.

I pulled the pulley off, the keyway does not appear wallowed out on either the pulley or the shaft, but the key barely stands out much from the semi circle in the shaft. I am using the key that came with the alternator, I pulled the old key out of my generator, it is the same size.

The pulley is an aluminum MST serpentine system.

Any ideas?

[KIM-P]

Blue Lock-tite (red is less forgiving). And a tighter nut torking? Its what I'd try first. Just a thought.

[CoryN]

Do they make larger keys? Keys that stand taller? I assume so but I have only had experience with the square ones

[Don]

I needed a key for my alternator once and didn't want to wait for an "official" one via mail order so I tried the auto parts store. I found a bubble pack on the rack with like ten different keys. I found one that was a little too big and filed it down.

[Fred]

I also filed one that was a hair too thick, works great, could the aluminum be wallowed out from to much belt tension?

[CoryN]

Well I filed a new key. No change. The pulley and the shaft both appear fine. I give up. I'm loading it up and hauling it to someone tomorrow to figure it out

[GregR]

Have you called MST? Just wondered if they had any thoughts.
Could it be the shaft itself. Seems like the MST instructions say something about not running the belt too tight (not that you are) as it can damage the shaft.
Just grasping for any ideas I can come up with.

[CoryN]

Both the pulley and the shaft appear fine.

Guess I am not suppose to run a serpentine system. It's given me nothing but trouble

[Ken]

Do you have a stock style you can throw on?
Maybe you can load it up as it is, bring the stuff you have and we can all help you out at the blast.
Bring your stock pulley and belt, and it can be installed if nothing else. If you don't have these, I am sure someones has them they can bring?

I'm assuming these serpentine systems can easily be changed back to the stock system?

Just thinking out loud....

[CoryN]

Yes I still have a degree pulley and chrome alternator pulley I can put back on it.

I dropped it off at the shop at lunch time with the old parts as well. We will see if they get it figured out or revert back to the old stuff. Also having them time it and tweak all the tuning. Hopefully it will be running good for the weekend.

Cory

[David Head]

Cory , Where do you take it???