What could cause pulley to break

[93GreenLX]

Get this, my alternator pulley tensioner fell off while driving to work today, the bolt that holds it on just snapped in half, wasn't very cold out either. I'm just driving along and I hear some metal hit the ground, next thing I know I've got a check engine light and a battery light on. Well to make a long story short it took 3 hours to get home. I ended up getting a full charge and hooking a battery up to my capaciters in my trunk. That battery powered my Optima and the both powered my car. Thing is I drove it 40 minutes there no problem. Buy, why would the bolt just snap...that's not cool

 

[Dan P.]

Maybe the bolt was loose and the pulley might have froze and caused it to shear off. You might want to make sure that all of your pulleys are in good shape and check the belts too.

 

[93GreenLX]

Well I just finished putting the new one on. The old one was definitely on there tight (hard as crap to get off) I thought the one that fell apart was bought from Advance Auto so I told them it was and they said "no problem just bring us the old one and we give you another for free." Come to find out it was the original ford one, but they cashed it out yesterday to order the new one and gave it to me free. $85.46 part too woohoo

 

[blastit116]

your such a scammer




but hey good job on getting them to pay for it

 

[bhuff30]

Wait a second, isn't the water pump driven by the same belt that drives the alternator? I know it is like that on every 2.3l I have looked at.
Could you enlighten me?

 

[93GreenLX]

Well I didn't try to scam them and then when I realized it they said it was already paid for in the system, so I didn't argue.

And no the water pump is hooked up to the A/C belt and the Power steereing and alternator are together I drove about 60 miles all together without it and it was alright

 

[bhuff30]

Maybe they changed it, but on my 88, there is a belt that goes from the crank, to the water pump, alt and power steering. then, another belt that goes from the waterpump to the AC. They must have changed it, because you would have never made it more than 5 miles without overheating if you didn't have a water pump.

 

[93GreenLX]

From crank to water pump to a/c and then crank to power steering to alternator