Finally! After a year and a half of having to replace belt after belt on my van, we figured out why it's been throwing belts. In a way I am aggravated with myself and the mechanic who looked at this van to see what the problem with it is. After the first couple of times the belt came off, I bought a tool designed just for serpentine belt replacement. Well, the belt came off again two days ago, and me, the wife, and my daughter went to where the van left my wife to fix it. As fate would have it, the tool I bought broke right where the socket attaches to it. That turned out to be a blessing.

We ended up having to use a regular ratchet, but couldn't get it to work because the fan shroud is in the way. We disconnected the fan shroud, got access to the tensioner, and I was finally able to see why the belts keep coming off (this is the part where I am a little upset with the mechanic). With the shroud in place, it is very difficult to grab a fan blade to see if the water pump bearing is going out. (some of you already know where this is headed) The pulley itself is not hard to see or touch with the shroud in place, but unless the shroud is off you cannot grab a fan blade to see if their is any play in the assembly. I grabbed a fan blade and knew immediately that I have a bad water pump! There is enough play in it that working it by hand you can make noise with it.

The strange thing is that the pump is not leaking. Don't ask me how, but it's true. Before you go there, no it isn't the fan clutch that's bad. It's the water pump bearing. I know how a bad fan clutch bearing acts. The fan clutch, shaft, and pulley are all moving as one unit.

So, we put a new belt on it, drove it straight to a different shop here in town, and the water pump will be replaced tomorrow. In the meantime, the wife is driving my truck to work, but that's ok. At least we figured out what the hell has been wrong with this van for the last year and a half. There have been several times that I was ready to take it to the scrap yard and be done with her, but I just couldn't do it. In spite of being a 23 year old van with broken tilt steering I "fixed" with a screwdriver stuck in the column, in spite of not having working A/C while not being a window van with lots of windows that open, in spite of not having a working radio and everything else that's wrong it, WE LOVE OUR VAN. It starts right away, has good C=6 in it, has plenty of room in it, and has a few good years still left in it.

 

I remember your ordeal with this Rico---glad its finally solved!

Like you the fact the pump wasn't leaking would have had me stumped as well--very, very unusual situation indeed!

Vans are easy to love and even more easy to miss if they go away---I'll own one forever more I'm sure.

Thanks for the update---good lesson for anyone else having a similar problem!