Red Dodge Diary

Once upon a time, I bought a brand new 1988 GMC Safari mini van. It came equipped with a 4.3 liter V-6 engine, which is about 262 cubic inches for us old school types. It’s really just a small block Chevy V8 with two cylinders cut off. Anyhow, I liked the vehicle as it gave me good reliabilty through the 7 years I owned it. I say good reliability, because it did, as most vehicles do have a few glitches, so i’d like to share a couple of maintenance stories with you.

First is the little road trip I took to San Antonio Texas to visit my daughter who was, at the time, a new recruit in the U.S. Air Force. There we were, driving along at about 55 mph, having a nice time, when I noticed a slight vibration through the steering wheel. The sudden onset and intensity of this vibration, while not severe, was enough to warrant pulling over to investigate. I made my way to a safe spot to pull over, and popped open the hood after I stopped. A quick look/see in the engine compartment area revealed that the serpentine “fan belt” had somehow derailed or moved over a couple of notches where it rides on the water pump pulley and was rubbing where it shouldn’t have been rubbing, thereby inducing the vibration.

Belt Tensioner keeps it tight

My assessment was that we could keep going until the next exit where I would select a more suitable place to complete my diagnosis. Upon finding a nice parking lot, I began my inspection. Hmmm, was something loose allowing the belt to become misaligned and try to come off? I got down on my back and slid under the front of the Safari to examine the entire belt routing area. AHA! When I made my way over to the power steering pump, I discovered the problem. The power steering pump bracket is mounted to the engine block by, oh, lets say four bolts. ( I seem to remember four). Two of these bolts had sheared off! This allowed the pump to move out of alignment, and thereby forcing the serpentine belt to try and come off of the pulley.

power steering pump bracket

I’m thinking you have got to be kidding me – TWO sheared off bolts? Of course the shanks of the broken bolts were firmly embedded in the engine block, so running down to the hardware store and quickly replacing the bolts was not an option. I carry a basic tool kit everywhere, but nothing for extracting broken off bolts. I suppose many people would at this point, if not well before, call around for service, use their AAA or equivalent, get a rental car and drive back to Fort Worth. About 4 hours away. But not me. Not cheapo Paul!

I had a plan. I used a knife, and cut right across the belt, like you would cut a ribbon. Yes I did! I then rerouted the belt around all of the pulleys with the exception of the power steering pump pulley, which I simply bypassed. I brought the ends of the belt up to where I could mark it with a pen, made a mark and removed the belt. I then cut out the extra length of belt that used to wrap around the power steering pulley. Time to go to the auto parts store. Fortunately there was one quite close, so I just walked over and asked a sales rep for a belt “this long”, as I held it up to show him.

“What’s it from”?, he asks. “Don’t ask”, I said. “It’s a custom job. I just want one the same size as this one, except without the knife cut”. He looked around for a few minutes and found one very close.

Having made my purchase, I went back to the van and began to install it. I should have bought one maybe an inch longer. It was difficult to install, as the belt tensioner was already restrained as much as I could get it. Nonetheless, I worked it over the pulleys, and shazam, we were on the road again less power steering. Yes! You can “drive” without power steering, but it takes considerably more effort to turn the wheel. Not something I recommend doing, but all kinds of temporary fixes can be used in an emergency. No, really, don’t do it!