My 91 E150 conversion, 5.0, AT, AC is eating belts. New airpump and powersteering pump. Pullys are not adjustable on the air pump and I cannot shim it forward or back. The powersteering pully is an interference fit and checks out alignmentwise okay. The belt rides on the the outer edge of the harmonic pully and after about 1k tears that runner off.

Question is, can I shim the harmonic pully out with washers without any accouring new problems?

THIA

Eric

 

First thing I'd do is confirm which pulley is out of line.

In this case when I see the word "shim" I think jury rig. It sounds like the harmonic balancer is your culprit. The deterioration of the rubber insert in these pulleys is a common problem. Leaked oil & age often degrade the quality of the rubber leading to the pulley moving out of line with the hub it rides on. The only long term solution is to replace the damaged harmonic balancer. I would only consider a possible "shim" as a temporary/emergency measure.

 

I'm thinking the same thing - just had to replace the harmonic balancer for my '95.

 

Check your water pump for play if you haven't already. mine was so bad that it caused the belt to run off the damper pulley, but it never leaked a drop of coolant.

 

I would put money on the balancer. When the rubber goes, the pulley ***** and walks the belt right off. Then it chews up and comes apart.

Steve
'95 Clubwagon XLT

 

Well, first off I would like to thank all of you for your replys on this matter. And FWIW I went ahead and shimmed out the pully. My reasons for this is that after some adjustment on the on the power steering pump the belt aligned better. Though I could not get any more adjustment from the other pullys. The water pump is new.

On pulling off the pully on the Harmonic Balancer it on sat on four feet anyway where it bolted to. So I put a lock washer under each hole of the pully and torqued the four bolts back on. Attached the belt and after more than a hundred miles the belt is right as is should be.

Eric

 

Hey Eric FWIW,I had a 90 E-250 that started throwing serp belts out of the blue,turned out the belt tensioner was cracked on the back side out of view until I unbolted it and looked on the backside I saw a small crack that allowed the pulley to tilt ever so slightly,and throw the belt.
Just something to consider.

take care...
...hangman

 

hangman

Thanks for the info, I had already put on a new tensioner first but had the same results. Rechecked the old one and it was still good and not worn anywhere. Left the new one on anyway.

 

fwiw the crank pulley is bolted the inner part of the
harmonic balancer
the part firmly bolted to the crank not the outer ring that
is mounted by rubber
if the crank pulley is out of line then it is bent or has slipped