fan pulley came apart at speed on the highway

[PINZDKH]

Went for a little spin in the Pinz on Friday afternoon... getting ready for a surprise camping trip with my little girl in a couple of weekends. I was tooling down the highway and there was a sudden and very undesirable mechanical clank and an instant charge light problem on the dash. I immediately stopped and was just hoping the new fan belt had broken... no such luck... the fan belt was intact but off the motor. My suspicions that the fan pulley had unscrewed were confirmed with a touch to the front of the fan. Fortunately we were near some friends' house and were able to pull in and park. It was late and we had to leave it. Saturday was already planned out so there was a full day of leaving my wounded Pinz without attention. I went to pick it up with a trailer this morning figuring that I would be spending a lot of time walking up and down the ditch of the highway looking for my pulley half ($88) and pulley nut ($27). I brought a few tools and removed the engine cover. Immediately I saw three of the shims lying in the tray of the air duct. I took a quick glance around and didn't see the pulley half or the nut. I was feeling a little deflated and was about to head down the highway looking for a needle in a hay stack when I took a closer look and could see the pulley plate and nut sitting on top of the front differential housing! So, now all I have to do is figure out just how many shims it had to begin with and order a few more. I do believe I'll be using some BLUE Loctite on the nut threads this time -- because I had installed the new fan belt and had tightened the nut to factory specs.

Cheers!
DKH

[EmbarkChief]

Wow. Glad you were close to a friendly place! Nice that the pulley stayed with the Pinz. At least it happened now instead of on the way out for your camping trip.


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[PINZDKH]

I agree 100%!!!
I'll order more shims from SAV tomorrow. Should be putting more test miles on it by the weekend.

[rmel]

SAV has 1/2 thickness shims. I have found cases where adding the stock shim was TOO tight,
delete one stock Shim was too loose. These 1/2 thickness shims solved that problem. I toque
to spec and have never had a case where the nut loosened, but now you have me think'n about
Blue Loctite. Now that I think about it I have not been happy with the SAV belts. One was pretty
darn new but developed cracks and I never over tighten my belts. The one on now is right in the
zone on tightness but squeals unless I use belt conditioner. Seems like the rubber on these
belts just ain't to standard -- too hard

[kdiqq]

I don't mean to knock anyone, but I've had really bad luck with any parts from SAV that are subject to problems due to aging. Gaskets, hoses, etc. I've had reorder from EI. I did recently change my belt with the NAPA equivalent listed on Jim's website. It works exactly as it should and was something like $9. If you're having trouble with the SAV belt, try that.

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[undysworld]

I don't mean to knock anyone, but I've had really bad luck with any parts from SAV that are subject to problems due to aging. Gaskets, hoses, etc. I've had reorder from EI. I did recently change my belt with the NAPA equivalent listed on Jim's website. It works exactly as it should and was something like $9. If you're having trouble with the SAV belt, try that.

kdiqq,

You might not have meant to knock anyone, but then you sort of did. Did you ever mention your concerns to Willy at SAV? If you didn't try that, then you really didn't give them a chance to be reputable and fix things. (And if you already have mentioned it, and they've failed to make it right, then shame on them!)

From what I've seen, NOS military parts may have been in storage (basically) forever in some cases, and I'd assume that would apply to Pinz parts too. Since universal things like belts and such are pretty easily sourced aftermarket, I'd guess those NOS ones might sit on the shelves even longer than the vehicle-specific parts.

If they were sold as good usable parts, then I'd think reputable suppliers would stand behind them and make it right for you. If they're selling things that give their customers trouble, they'd want to know about it. It's always been my understanding (and experience) that SAV was quite reputable.

I'm a big fan of customer service. But remember, even the best guarantee doesn't prevent problems, it only remedies them when they occur.

[kdiqq]

I don't mean to knock anyone, but I've had really bad luck with any parts from SAV that are subject to problems due to aging. Gaskets, hoses, etc. I've had reorder from EI. I did recently change my belt with the NAPA equivalent listed on Jim's website. It works exactly as it should and was something like $9. If you're having trouble with the SAV belt, try that.

kdiqq,

You might not have meant to knock anyone, but then you sort of did. Did you ever mention your concerns to Willy at SAV? If you didn't try that, then you really didn't give them a chance to be reputable and fix things. (And if you already have mentioned it, and they've failed to make it right, then shame on them!)

From what I've seen, NOS military parts may have been in storage (basically) forever in some cases, and I'd assume that would apply to Pinz parts too. Since universal things like belts and such are pretty easily sourced aftermarket, I'd guess those NOS ones might sit on the shelves even longer than the vehicle-specific parts.

If they were sold as good usable parts, then I'd think reputable suppliers would stand behind them and make it right for you. If they're selling things that give their customers trouble, they'd want to know about it. It's always been my understanding (and experience) that SAV was quite reputable.

I'm a big fan of customer service. But remember, even the best guarantee doesn't prevent problems, it only remedies them when they occur.

SAV has always been very fast to ship items, has been very communicative over several items (specifically the wiper motor kit). In full disclosure, the parts I ordered that had issues, I was either able to fix (stiff hoses) or were so cheap, I just sourced them elsewhere. I didn't want to bust them over $13 in gaskets. It was easier just to get a different version ordered.

Ive ordered several hard parts from them and quality, pricing, and delivery were all a 10/10. I don't really have any complaints about the business. Just I happened to get gaskets there were not good quality. It was more of a caution than a 'dont do business with SAV'. Great place and their prices are typically a bit lower than EI.

So again, I apologize if it looks like I am completely discrediting a company, I do not mean to. I was merely offering my experience with a handful of occasions I tried to get gaskets and hoses from SAV and their appeared to not have aged well. Given the very low cost of the parts, I did not attempt to remedy the situation with SAV, I just threw in the parts I needed when I was making another order with EI. Given my experience with SAV's service, I'm 100% sure they would have made effort to make things right. Just in my scenario, it's was much easier to just let it go. I will continue to order parts from SAV, just probably not soft gaskets, belts, or hoses. Just my $.02, please take what I say with a grain of salt.

EDIT: Just so my claims don't seem totally unwarranted, I will post my third occurrence of gasket troubles. I recently got a new exhaust coupler (great piece. Not a thing wrong with it. Highly recommended) but the included gaskets leaked at every single port. The issues was that all the SAV gaskets were reproductions of OEMs, not just 'old'.

In the photo shown you can see the leaky SAV gasket compared to OEM compared to the set I ordered from Scott. The SAV was too large to fit around the header snugly like the OEM did.


Sorry to derail. Again, I believe that SAV would have offered to remedy this issue, I just chose to grab a few gaskets in an order that I was already placing with EI as opposed to calling them during my time off and because they were included in an otherwise totally fine piece.

[PINZDKH]

I got a new fan belt from SAV today (along with new shims!). I have had great service from SAV and EI. The fan belt I got was a brand new industrial one ... Looks way better than the new Napa belt I recently got. Perhaps the V belt profile is correct on the SAV belt -- who knows... I'll just be glad to know the proper belt is on there (along with some BLUE LOCTITE).
Cheers!

[rmel]

Ya, I guess I am the guilty party here with a somewhat less than complimentary comment about SAV's belts
Just to clear the air, I am a HUGE fan of SAV, I should give Willie a call on the belts though.

[63rover]

Now you all have me wondering. I have a NAPA belt as a spare I purchased last summer. I've not had to do anything to the one on my truck yet. I do know that old Series Land Rovers don't like North American belt as the V angle is different in England. The Rover eats a NA belt quickly but it will get you home. Does a Pinz work fine on the NA standard from NAPA or do I need a different V profile?

Cheers, Clive

[kdiqq]

The NAPA belt I am using now has worked great. Though when I first started it, it flung off a bunch of material that I guess is from manufacturing. It now runs great, I've had a few 1+ hour highway trips with it. Though the PN on Jim's site is for a 'lawn' belt, I was told by NAPA it's better than the automotive equivalent.

FWIW though, I don't think it's bad to discuss experience with the limited vendors we have, just keep it honest

[undysworld]

FWIW though, I don't think it's bad to discuss experience with the limited vendors we have, just keep it honest

That's a fair enough comment, as far as it goes.

But It's also a good idea to remember that mistakes happen, even with good vendors. (And remember, we're not talking about Amazon here, with state-of-the-art computer inventory management and distribution.) WHEN (not just if) someone has a problem, they owe it to that supplier to give them the opportunity to make things right before they only post a negative review, even if it is true. After the supplier corrects things (or not), one can post about how well (or poorly) things turned out.

Feedback to a supplier is the way that they make things better. That's not only fair, it's necessary.

[PINZDKH]

I found out why the pulley came apart in the first place... nut stripped out... and that's the good news... the threads on the armature shaft are screwed all up as well... Camping trip NEXT WEEKEND... tick tock... not only am I quickly running out of time, this thing is 2 and 300 dollaring me to DEATH. Welcome to the joys of Pinz ownership I guess.

[Brickren]

Do you think you could get a die and redress the threads enough to use locktite until you get back?

[PINZDKH]

The camping trip is set for next weekend (surprise trip with my little girl). I'm trying to get the Pinz ready to go - it's in my shop so no worries.
The threads on both the armature and nut are too far gone. New parts due in tomorrow.