I've mentioned this modification several times in recent posts, putting off the long-winded description until I could describe an actual fix. That's finally come to pass, but those of you who fade when mechanical discussions surface may be well served by skipping this entry. It's up to you, but you're hereby officially warned.
This topic was introduced in my May 3rd entry,
Of cranks and other things in which I embarked upon a rant about how I'd finally abandoned cranky old Larry Stewart after suffering too much of his abuse and was waiting for a quote from MER Equipment for designing and machining parts. That was for the high-tech solution of replacing the standard v-belt with a fancy serpentine system like they put in most modern automobiles. It didn't take long for MER to come back with two options, either: six weeks and two thousand dollars or; two weeks and three thousand dollars. It took me even less time, though, to decide that THAT was SO not hap'nin'!
Just for grins, here's a repeat picture of the old system for comparison:
So off I went to my old buddy, Jens Hjorth, who I've mentioned in conjunction with several other Mabroukan modifications. He and I came up with what seemed like a simple approach to modifying the system, though still tending toward the Serpentine Solution. I bought a new alternator with the proper serpentine-type pulley on it (I need a spare alternator for cruising anyway) that would give us the dimensions for making new crank and water pump pulleys.
It took about a week for Jens and Quin to decide it'd be prohibitively expensive to machine the relatively complicated serpentine pulleys from scratch and they couldn't find parts that were close enough to what was needed to just suffer a little remanufacturing to fit. The Serpentine Solution turned out to be just a pretty, slithery idea up in a tree that had tempted me to eat the apple. Good sense seems to have won out.
With a little more discussion, Jens and I decided that if I could get duplicates of the pulleys already on my engine, we could adapt the system to add a second v-belt for the alternator. Even though Perkins has stopped supporting my 4-154 engine (I'm sure that'll provide a source for future tales of woe), I had already tracked down the company that bought the rights to remanufacture parts and ordered a new fresh water pump from them. Going back to their order desk, it turned out that they had some pulleys that closely resembled the ones on my engine. I ordered new water pump and crank pulleys and we were off to the races. It doesn't sound nearly so sexy as adding a serpentine belt, but there's something to be said for the neanderthal approach.
It took about a week to get those delivered to Jens and only a few days for him to machine them. I picked the "new" parts up on Saturday afternoon, spent Sunday and Monday assembling some additional parts and supplies and painting up the various components, then got the system all installed and operating yesterday.
Amazement abounds! Things went very quickly and smoothly once I abandoned the fancy solution. I am so, SO happy and can now move on to more exotic projects and places.