UPDATE 23/12/10
Well ... interesting news ...
Not great ... but not too bad ( I hope ).
I've spent most of the week sorting Christmas and the weather has been hilarious ... so the Disco has just sat on the front lawn. I've been using my mate's Passat.
So today I decide to start stripping stuff out of the way so I can get at the crank pulley.
Steve ( who lives in the next street ) kindly popped around to lend me his breaker bar ( sorry about the naked answering the door thing fella ... I was just getting in the bath ... honest ... and I thought you were the wife coming back from the shop
).
Anyway ... Off with the viscous fan and I'm all prepared for a nightmare trying to get the pulley bolt off. I've bought a 27mm hex socket and I try it on with the beraker bar attached. Car isn't in gear and handbrake is off. I turn the breaker a few degrees anticlockwise expecting the crankshaft to turn ... and ... yup ... the bolt is loose.
Just screwed it off with my fingers.
The pulley just slid off. The inside of the pulley has just worn away. There's virtually no key slot left. There's no key anywhere ... must have totally worn away.
The pulley has worn away at the alloy round hole in the alloy timing cover. Not sure what diameter that should be but it's been rubbed by the pulley where the pulley has waggled around.
So the pulley is dead and I need a replacement.
Now then ... the shaft.
It's diameter is a little 'polished' on the end inch but the diameter is ok.
The keyway ... This is clearly not the first time this has been a problem. Someone has 'machined', 'dremelled', a second key way immediately next to the original keyway. So there is now one double wide keyway. To be honest ( and I was looking at this with a lamp in the dark ) the sides of the double wide keyway look ok.
I presume they then used two keys. One as per normal that fits in the pulley keyway slot ... and one that was ground down to the level of the shaft. The whole lot presumably loctited in.
In theory I suppose this should work quite well.
There's no sign of any keys ... all gone.
So I don't know if this was a recent bodge done a couple of months ago just before it was sold to me and it's lasted just a couple of months ...
... Or was it done reasonably well 70k ago and it's done a decent job until now?
Maybe the bolt wasn't done up tight enough and this has allowed everything to work loose. I believe this is typically why this area causes a problem.
So I presume it's a case of redoing the above presumption? Two new keys and one is ground down ... or is there a double width key and I grind just half of that down? Loctite keys in. Loctite pulley on. Loctite bolt in.
As has been said. It makes sense to do the timing belt whilst in there.
Here's some more worrying news ...
Remember that this nightmare all started when the car overheated a few weeks ago. I'd topped up coolant and bled coolant system and all seemed well. Heater was blowing warm and water level was holding it's own. So I'd hoped head gasket was ok.
Whilst I was under bonnet today I checked water level. It looks slightly lower ... but the car is on the lawn at a slight angle.
So I now need a new pulley ... cheapest I've seen new is about 44 quid plus postage. How much is a belt kit? 60 quidish?
So do I throw 110 more quid at this engine and then find out the head gasket is gone? I suppose I could do the timing and pulley now and get running and then look to do the head gasket myself when the weather is better in a couple of months?
I'll try get a photo of the double keyway but it is basically just that ... a double keyway with a second ( same width ) keyway cut side by side with the original.
What do you think guys ? ( I'm so sorry for the long posts but I want to be thorough to give you all the info ).
Many thanks
Col
