Rust, rust, grumble, grumble

[Aaarrghh]

It seems every time I go for a jaunt, something more becomes apparent that needs fixing because of the 12 years of neglect, and the morning dews here in FL. Y'all that keep your rigs in dry climates should be thankful.

First it was the power steering fluid leak. The metal high-pressure line had such deep pits, they were leaking. I thought I was done with this sort of thing when I replaced all the brake lines and the tranny cooler lines, not to mention the pitted brake rotors. Well, installed the new high-pressure hose and went merrily on my way. No more pouring in ps fluid!

But why did I have to keep tightening the power steering belt? OK, this time there was no more adjustment left. Looking closer, I could see the belt had gotten very narrow and had settled down into the pulley. This was a belt I had put on just 1900 miles ago.

Upshot is, the crankshaft pulley is so badly rusted it's wearing out all the v-belts. Now O'Reillys wants $75 for a new chrome-plated one. He says that's the only one they can get that will fit. I'm just hoping I don't have to remove the radiator to change it. But then, maybe a new radiator ...

On and on ...   What's next?

Aaarrghh!

[legomybago]

I have a newer power steering belt on my 79' Ford that does the same, keeps slowly getting loose, and I have to tighten. I figured it was because I put the wrong width belt on? But maybe I have a pulley issue myself? Going to take a different look at mine now.... Hm?

[Rickf1985]

Rust on a pulley usually polishes off in a few minutes of running. You may see pits in the pulley but they will not wear a belt. Belts wear from slipping or misalignment. It looks pretty wet in there, is that the morning dew or is that oil? If it is oil then the belts has been slipping from the oil. Are you tightening it to spec. when you do tighten it? It is entirely possible that the crankshaft pulley could be worn out from slipping belts, we have all heard the guy who just drives and drives with the belt squealing. getting a crank pulley for a 454 should not be hard at all. Have you contacted any online used auto parts places?

Oh, and if you want rust come to the Northeast where we salt the hell out of the roads all winter and then it rains all spring just to help the salt out.

[M & J]

If you were losing that much ps fluid then perhaps it's like Rick said except from the ps leak. That could cause your belts to slip and run deeper in the groove.

[Aaarrghh]

Rust on a pulley usually polishes off in a few minutes of running. You may see pits in the pulley but they will not wear a belt. Belts wear from slipping or misalignment. It looks pretty wet in there, is that the morning dew or is that oil? If it is oil then the belts has been slipping from the oil. Are you tightening it to spec. when you do tighten it? It is entirely possible that the crankshaft pulley could be worn out from slipping belts, we have all heard the guy who just drives and drives with the belt squealing. getting a crank pulley for a 454 should not be hard at all. Have you contacted any online used auto parts places?

Oh, and if you want rust come to the Northeast where we salt the hell out of the roads all winter and then it rains all spring just to help the salt out.

Thanks, Rick. If it was light rust, I could see it polishing off. But it's cake rust. Maybe after 4 or 5 new belts, the rust would wear away, but I'm already tired of crawling under to tighten. It's a grimy job. By spec, do you mean 1" deflection? I don't have that much after I tighten. The shinyness is ps oil, but the pulley and belt are dry. I don't think that's a problem. BTW, the PS belt is the only one that doesn't go around a third or fourth pulley, like the others do. Also, the belts are made by Gates, what O'Reilly sells, not junk Dayco belts. If they were, I'd blame them first.

I don't know any online used parts places. Can you point me to a good one? I sure don't need a $75 chromed part!

My rig lived in NY and NH most of it's life before I bought it and escaped to FL back in '97. Yes there is salt damage, sad to say, but there's not much I can do about it, other than never going back!

[Rickf1985]

WOW!!! I see what you are talking about now! I have started up engines that have sat for 50 years that did not look that bad! I did a search for used pulleys and could not come up with anything cheaper than the 75.00 chrome part. If that has the proper grooves then that is not that bad of a deal. You can Google "used auto parts" and see what pops up. call the one closest to you. These places deal with their own network of dealers and can find just about anything.

[cncsparky]

The 3 groove crank pulley shouldn't be hard to find at all, used on tons of BBC's.  I may have one, I'll look for ya. 

[M & J]

His info says it's a sbc.

[Aaarrghh]

The 3 groove crank pulley shouldn't be hard to find at all, used on tons of BBC's.  I may have one, I'll look for ya.

Thanks, please let me know. In the meantime I think I'll visit my favorite Chevy van at the U-pullit. The one O' got had the wrong diameters on the 2 inside grooves.

[Rickf1985]

Oh yea, so it does. W% I am so used to dealing with big blocks on here.

[joanfenn]

And a few blockheads also W%

[Aaarrghh]

My morning at Larry's U-Pull yielded nothing but another rusted pulley, not worth bothering to get off. I think any other used pulley I might find would be pretty rusted, too.

I'm considering a new approach. The chrome pulley from carparts.com would work, I think, if it was matched with a new water pump pulley so they both had the same diameter grooves. Do you think this would work? It would end the water pump belt wear, and possibly help with cooling, if the water pump got driven better at high speed. I have a problem with running hot over 60 mph. The PS pump would be driven a little faster. Would that be an issue?

http://www.carparts.com/details/Chevrolet/P20/Transdapt/Crankshaft_Pulley/1983/Base/8_Cyl_5-dot-7L/T379608.html

http://www.carparts.com/results/?D=pulley&Dx=mode+matchallany&N=0&Ntk=Main&Ntt=pulley&Ntx=mode+matchallany&Nty=1&PN=0+3148&VN=4294959708+4294966764+4294961758+4294967029+4294966473

[Rickf1985]

You can actually move the water too fast through the radiator and it does not have time to cool off before leaving the radiator and going back to the engine. There were about 10 billion small block Chevies made so there have to be pulleys out there. I probably have several around here but I have no idea where since all of my Chevy stuff is buried right now. Another issue with the bigger pulley is that if the pump is not just right or f the antifreeze mixture is just a hair weak you could get cavitation. That is not good and would cause instant overheating.

[Aaarrghh]

There were about 10 billion small block Chevies made so there have to be pulleys out there.

In my tour of the junkyard there was one fact that stood out right away. Only the very oldest junks there had v-belts. It was easy to tell at a glance if a GM product was worth further investigation, because it seemed like all of them had the flat belts. The only vehicle in the whole yard that had a v-belt pulley like mine had, as I said, a pulley rusted as badly as mine. Aside from that one, there were other configurations with 2-groove pulleys, etc. that just wouldn't do.

[Rickf1985]

Only the very oldest huh, now you make me feel ancient since they did not really start using serpentine belts until the eighties.

[M & J]

You are ancient Rick.

[Rickf1985]

I feel it,Lawyer wanted all of my doctors names going back to my youth for workers comp claim that will probably never be settled. Also all of the places I worked and any and all broken bones and surgeries. I actually remembered all the doctors and workplaces. Most of the doctors are dead and gone and most of the places I worked are long gone but I told him that as far as broken bones and surgeries................ There is no way I can remember or list all of that. Do they really even try to look all of that stuff up? And why when I passed very rigorous physicals for my job before the injury? Amazing.

[Aaarrghh]

Only the very oldest huh, now you make me feel ancient since they did not really start using serpentine belts until the eighties.

Don't feel bad, to me an '83 is pretty new. My first car was a '47 Plymouth my dad had. My older brother put a Sears short block in it when he was 14, working between 2 trees. It could squeal the tires.

Larry's seems to be cleaning out the older vehicles. The nice Chevy van that was in the back by the fence was gone. I got some good small parts off it. Now there's not a good one like that left there. I'll have to find another junkyard. BTW, the passenger door in my photo came from Larry's. Cost me $20. The original door was rusted away at the bottom.

I'll try your suggestion about asking at another used auto parts place. I know they catalogue stuff. Maybe they'll find a clean pulley that's been kept inside.

[Rickf1985]

Ask around at local garages also, someone might have a blown up 350 laying around somewhere. Even laying outside they usually do not get as bad as yours. I looked at the three I have access to in my garage and they are all two belt as I figured. They are all racing engines so only needed the two belts.

[Hobbes]

Have you tried Evaporust?  Amazing stuff!  It even removed all the very deep rust from a cast iron exhaust clamp I had sitting outside for many years.  Supposed to leave a protective coating as well, but I always follow up with some sort of protective coating as applicable (paint, Boeshield, etc.).

[Aaarrghh]

Have you tried Evaporust?  Amazing stuff!  It even removed all the very deep rust from a cast iron exhaust clamp I had sitting outside for many years.  Supposed to leave a protective coating as well, but I always follow up with some sort of protective coating as applicable (paint, Boeshield, etc.).

No, first I've heard of it. Would I have to remove the pulley and soak it?

BTW I was told that yards "don't inventory small parts like that, only big things like engines and transmissions and body panels."

[Hobbes]

Ideally, yes. Just put the pulley in a shallow pan and cover with Evaporust.  For heavy rust leave it in for 24 hours.  Might have to flip it once.  The nice thing is that doing it this way you can re-use the liquid a few times until it stops working.  I put the used stuff in a separate bottle. 

The instructions do say that for large items (or pulleys you can't or don't want to remove) you can put some paper towels soaked with the stuff over the item, and then cover everything with a plastic bag or plastic wrap to keep it from drying out.  I've never tried that, so can't vouch for its effectiveness.

My local Wally World carries Evaporust for about 17 bucks a gallon, which IMO is a small price to pay for what it does.

By the way, I have no connection to the company that makes Evaporust; I'm just really stoked that I found something that actually works on rust besides blasting. 

[Rickf1985]

Muriatic acid will work as well, cheaper too. Find it pool supply places. The pulley is only held on with four bolts. The thing is that it is the pits that are tearing up the belts most likely and you are not going to fix them. This would be good for a rusty but not badly pitted replacement.

Isn't Evaporust what they were going to "save" that 57 Plymouth that was buried in the vault with.That idea sort of died as the car literally fell apart. I think he still has the car but the project has sort of stalled I think.

[Hobbes]

I must have missed the buried Chrysler.   I have a half-buried Massey Harris 50 tractor that's going to see a lot of this stuff though. 

[Rickf1985]

Sorry, it was a Plymouth, I changed my original post to reflect that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNPx8jKX1fA