Throwing a belt

[vlpena]

After I installed my toothbar on my BX23 last week, I put it to the test. It passed with flying colors. What an awesome way of tearing up stuff. Got slivers of trees and roots caught in the space between the bar abd the FEL blade. No problem...I'll floss later. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
After I had fun with that, I noticed a "funny" noise under the hood. Popped it and saw that the fan belt had been thrown off of the pulley. It stayed on the shaft, so I didn't have any problems. Looks like easy enuff to fix. Just wondering, anybody else have this happen to them? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
Might have been a fluke, maybe came from the factory like that.

 

[Junkman]

Without knowing the number of hours on the machine, it isn't possible to know why the belt came off the pulleys. Generally speaking, belts don't just come off pulleys, but some underlying cause has to be the culprit. It might be as simple as the belt was not properly tensioned at the factory and the dealer missed this in the pre delivery preparations, or it could be a defective pulley that isn't in alignment with the other pulleys of the engine. Look at the belt and observe if it is traveling in alignment to the other pulleys, and if not, have your selling dealer make the proper repairs and or adjustments. If you reinstalled the belt yourself, make certain that it isn't too tight, or you will damage the bearings of the water pump and/or the alternator (dynamo). One last though, if you were doing a lot of digging with the tooth bar, you might have kicked up a stick that got lodged between the belt and a pulley and this "kicked" the belt off the pulley. One would think it unlikely that you wouldn't have heard the noise of the event, but entirely possible given the amount of noise that a diesel engine produces. Check the belt for damage and have the dealer replace if this is the case. A belt that was improperly manufactured, could also be one of the causes.. Many variables, many answers, and these are only a few of the possibilities....

 

[vlpena]

Thanks for your reply on my BX23 throwing the belt. I just tryed to fix the problem and found out that is going to be an undertaking and since it is still in warranty (<20 hrs.), I will take it back to the dealer on Friday. I loosened the top bolt(12mm) on the alternator, no problem. Looks like the bottom would be no problem too...but I can't get my hands under there. No working space. Reminds me why I don't work on cars much anymore....grrrrr!
Looks like the FEL, and the engine cover have to come off first before I (they) can loosen the bolt.
Don't know why it "jumped the track" anyway. Most likely a stick got wedged up there some how and derailed the belt.