I would like to find the Engineer that put together the Vacuum pump mounting solution.

At first the bolts were coming loose and then breaking off.
Here is the original as I got it.


and


I replaced them with much larger bolts.

Original size with helicoil.

and



Larger bolt holes

and



Now the bracket that holds the vacuum pump to it's mount cracked in half!




Here is the front welded.




And the rear where I filled in the stamping indentation with weld to strengthen it.

 

what the hell are you doing to that poor thing bud? how in the world do you keep breaking it? why not just start with a new set. maybe yours was just heavily defective.

 

Something ain't right. The vacuum pump shouldn't create either vibrations that crack and fatigue steel like that, or the pump shouldn't require enough torque to twist the steel to fatigue it. Sure your pump isn't screwed up, the pulley isn't screwed up, or that it is misaligned?

 

Something besides normal use caused that!

 

1: Those original vacuum pump bolts are awful small.

2: The torch damage was from the previous owner and how I got it before fixing it.

3: No matter how tight I got those pump bolts, they came loose and the belt would slip.

4: Even without the vacuum pump, that Alternator belt flops around like a scalded dog no matter how tight I tighten it, and the vacuum pump runs off of it.

5: The truck most likely has over 200,000 miles on it if not over 300,000.

6: All the pulleys are aligned and the pump turns easily by hand.

7: The metal was not twisted, just cracked.

8: Since replacing the vacuum pump bolts with larger ones, it has not slipped or come loose, just the crack.

 

the pump shouldn't turn "easily" by hand. When it does that then the diaphram is weak and going out if not already gone out. The crack is from the metal being stressed from flexing back and forth. No good at all

 

you ever try just using some "blue" loctite?

 

Deffinitely get some blue or green threadlocker. For the floppy alt belt this is my fix. I add an idler to eliminate most of the flop if not all of it once warmed up.

 

Tight belts eat bearings ... If it has to be that tight to prevent it from slipping then either the belt is worn out or it's not the correct one and is incorrectly fitting the V of the pulley's.

With the long run that belt makes there is no way to stop it from flopping about, don't worry about it and tighten only tight enough to prevent slipping, any tighter does nothing but kill bearings and tear up brackets.

Something is definitely wrong, I have not been around these trucks that long (bout 5 years) but this is the first time I've heard of issues like that, I suspect REAL EXCESSIVELY tight belts to be the culprit.

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

Good idea, unfortunately dangerously done, without a spring loaded idler, sooner or later that belt will flop off between the idler and bracket and tear things up, unless you get lucky and it goes the other way.

Keep up on the tension setting.

The method also gives more wrap on the crank and alternator pulley's and that is good, a little less belt tension is required to prevent slippage, less tension the better for the bearings and brackets.

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

Been like that for years and so have the other trucks I've done it too. Never had a problem, can't flop off being there is less than an 1/8" gap between the bracket and pulley. Tension is always set on a hot engine to compensate the growth from heat. I use an idler from mid 90's dodge v-8.
Don't know what your talking about with saying it's dangerous?

 

And I hope you never do!

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

ya my vacum pump went out and my bracket looks good as new and my truck has 230,000 so that was a deffective part or somethin overtightened or bad vibrations

 

If anything I would bet on the vibration.
Tomorrow, between rain downpours, I'll pull the belts and spin the pulleys I can spin by hand to see if any of the pulleys (Mainly the Alt and Vac pump) are bent or wobbling.

No telling - with all that the previous owner did to the truck.

1: The rear brake job he did was ok except that the auto adjuster guides were missing and the cables were just bouncing around wrapping around whatever was available.

2: The engine oil pan (that is lower than the frame cross-member and another design screwup), that when you bottom it out, it moves the pan bottom up (dented) so the drain plug tip will not allow he first thread to catch.

Well, he took a standard bolt, ground the threads off and wrapped it with a ton of pipe tape!
The dent is so severe that I need to place an O ring under the washer as when the washer bottoms out, it's only on the outer edge so it leaks like a sieve without it.

3: The steering column was messed with and the spring that holds the shift lever in place is missing.

4: The head light dimmer switch mounting location on the floor was --- just not there!
Just the wires twisted together.
I assume it was melted by the salt in the snow that was tracked in on their shoes.
It has been relocated to a new location on the right side of the dash.

5: The head light switch was so melted from overheating (Yet another design flaw) that he lights did not work.
I fabricated headlight relays and mounted them between the batteries and the lights.
Now they are so bright that everyone thinks the regular lights are the high beams.

6: The bed (that is no longer square and so tore up the gate barely closes, but only if its aligned just right) says “unleaded fuel only” under the fuel door, but the truck is a Diesel.

7: The rear fuel tank filler neck was full of something like saw dust and so rusted out I just pulled it an threw it away.

8: The fuel filter was full of water and rusted so bad that the aluminum lower cap would not seal after removing it to change the filter.

10: The brake fluid was at least 19 years old even though he just did a brake job.

11: Replacing the “stuck open” thermostat became “installing” the thermostat as there was none in there to replace!

12: And let's not forget that original TORCH THE BROKEN BOLT OUT removal technique used on the vacuum pump.

13: The F.I.P.L. was bad.

14: The trans had the input to planetary fail so no go in any gear.

The F.I.P.L. and trans I knew about when purchasing it, but the others were just additional treats to keep me busy as they popped up.

I got a real Jewel.

 

well it sounds like the truck has been a real chore lol ya if the po tried to change somethin and had to pull the pulley he might have bent it or warped it not hard to do if your not careful and sounds like he was very carless