Dead Truck

Dead Truck

The truck sits…clogging up the driveway, and due to a relatively simple issue…is for all intents and purposes…dead

I had been hearing a clicking that sounded like a pulley going bad. Like most modern vehicles (God, I love air-cooled engines) the Dodge has a single “serpentine” belt which is long, and drives multiple items off the crankshaft…the alternator, the water pump, the air conditioner compressor, and the power steering pump in my case. The belt tightness is controlled by moving and locking down an idler pulley. Gee…that is five different pulleys. I had also gotten a whiff of hot anti-freeze at times, but the beast has had a tiny leak somewhere for ages that the service guys have not been able to track down.

The noise was intermittent, and I could not isolate where it came from. Like other modern vehicles, there is a lot of shrouding and ancillary “stuff” in the way of seeing what is actually going on. I was hoping it was the idler pulley as that is an easy (?) fix, though as I looked at it this morning there is “stuff” in the way which would make getting a wrench on the adjusting nut tough…I be there’s a damn proprietary tool Dodge created just for this purpose..as well as to keep us amateurs from saving money by doing our own work. 

Anyway, the noise was not consistent enough to justify bringing it in for service. I figured it would get more constant and then I would do so. At least that was my experience when our old Ford Explorer did the same thing while I was visiting Jason in college at Chico. Took it to a dealer in Orland and was back on the road in no time.

Well…it got consistent all right…fast! We took some junk to the dump the other day, and when I got back there was copious anti-freeze leaking from somewhere. I could only see the top hose and that was not it, and it was coming from behind the radiator so that was not it either. My guess was the water pump, which would also isolate where the noise was. 

With this as a preliminary hypothesis I made an appointment at my regular shop for this morning. 

I got as far as the end of the drive when all of a sudden I had no steering. The leak was bad enough to soak the belt and throw it. After irritating my back standing on the bumper and trying to see if I could finesse it back on, I am now waiting for Triple A to come and tow it to the shop. For $38.60 (my membership only pays the first five miles but then it is only $8 a mile. Given that the last time I had anything towed I was 30 years younger it was not worth the “Premium” membership costs.

At least the 914 belt only drives the alternator and is brand new and there is no anti-freeze to leak on it. On the other hand, it is a total bitch to get to.

This is pretty mmuch what the beast looks like
Though more streamlined mirrors..
these are likely more useful when towing than what I have