So my 95 has been retired to winter duty for the past few years. I decided this year, for a few reasons to keep it on the road all year. I just got another set of directional wheels with all season tires so I didn't have to chew up the winters. Also, the car has been sitting unused for about 3 months while I've been too busy with other projects.
One of the big items that I needed to take care of was getting the AC working. I haven't had it working in at least 6 or 8 years. It hasn't been a big deal because for 4 of the past 8 years it was a winter only car. The only things keeping it from working was a leaking high pressure line and needed a few new o-rings. I replaced the line and o-rings this weekend, it held vacuum without a problem with the new parts. AC worked great with a fresh charge.
Last night I was heading back home and I heard a strange sound from under the hood. I expected it to be AC related since I had just gotten the system running. I saw the belt was starting to shred. The ac was running fine, no noise or strange things going on, I did turn it off to take some stress off of the belt. I did notice that two of the bolts on the water pump pulley had backed out completely and were gone, and the remaining two were loose. I tightened the remaining two up with an adjustable I had in the trunk and started to drive the remaining 2 miles home.
About 1000 feet from my driveway the belt snapped, although I got it home without an issue. I took a quick look and it felt like the water pump was hard to spin. I'm suspecting that it is just coincidental that this happened when I serviced the AC. The bolts loosening really surprised me, that is absolutely something that happened in the past few days. It was the first thing I noticed when I opened the hood and I was working on the car this past weekend fixing a vacuum leak issue. More to come when I dig into it tonight.
The ironic thing is I ALWAYS keep a breaker bar, spare belt, flashlight, and a few tools in the trunk. I had just taken them out while I was cleaning the car and had forgotten to put them back in. The ONE time I could have used them.....
One of the big items that I needed to take care of was getting the AC working. I haven't had it working in at least 6 or 8 years. It hasn't been a big deal because for 4 of the past 8 years it was a winter only car. The only things keeping it from working was a leaking high pressure line and needed a few new o-rings. I replaced the line and o-rings this weekend, it held vacuum without a problem with the new parts. AC worked great with a fresh charge.
Last night I was heading back home and I heard a strange sound from under the hood. I expected it to be AC related since I had just gotten the system running. I saw the belt was starting to shred. The ac was running fine, no noise or strange things going on, I did turn it off to take some stress off of the belt. I did notice that two of the bolts on the water pump pulley had backed out completely and were gone, and the remaining two were loose. I tightened the remaining two up with an adjustable I had in the trunk and started to drive the remaining 2 miles home.
About 1000 feet from my driveway the belt snapped, although I got it home without an issue. I took a quick look and it felt like the water pump was hard to spin. I'm suspecting that it is just coincidental that this happened when I serviced the AC. The bolts loosening really surprised me, that is absolutely something that happened in the past few days. It was the first thing I noticed when I opened the hood and I was working on the car this past weekend fixing a vacuum leak issue. More to come when I dig into it tonight.
The ironic thing is I ALWAYS keep a breaker bar, spare belt, flashlight, and a few tools in the trunk. I had just taken them out while I was cleaning the car and had forgotten to put them back in. The ONE time I could have used them.....