The Ford Barn

Farrell In Vancouver · 07-16-2014, 08:32 AM

The wife and I recently experienced a belt failure about an hour and a half away from home. We first noticed a smell like rubber burning and pulled over to find the coupe's belt had thrown most of it's cords all over the engine bay and it had jumped off the pulleys. I cleaned up the strings and set the belt back on but could not tighten it at all as it was stretching like a sun soaked snake. This at least kept the alternator turning and the pump rotating for a while longer on this hot late June day. We continued on monitoring the motometer with no problems. After some exploring and lunch we headed back home and as soon as we hit the highway the belt blew off completely. A passing driver yelled out that he saw the belt fly out and confirmed my fears.Yet the coupe jugged on maintaining 80 Ks or 50 MPH. As long as we kept moving the engined kept cool, but as soon as we hit a traffic light the red started climbing. At one point I could hear the overflow starting to hiss which told me I was making more steam the anything and I was forced to pull over. I waited for the pressure to drop and opened the cap up and vented off the remaining steam. I had the wifey fire the engine up and added fresh water to just above the baffles and we made the last twenty minutes back into the driveway. The wife then asks me why I didn't have a spare belt in the car and I told her I was counting on her wearing some pantyhose that day, but as it was so hot she had not, so again, it was all her fault. Women!
So the thermo-siphon works as long as you can keep some air moving through the radiator to help cool the engine.
Cheers!

07-16-2014, 08:32 AM	#14
Farrell In Vancouver Senior Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: Pitt Meadows BC Posts: 1,003	Re: Emergency: How to run with broken radiator or water pump? The wife and I recently experienced a belt failure about an hour and a half away from home. We first noticed a smell like rubber burning and pulled over to find the coupe's belt had thrown most of it's cords all over the engine bay and it had jumped off the pulleys. I cleaned up the strings and set the belt back on but could not tighten it at all as it was stretching like a sun soaked snake. This at least kept the alternator turning and the pump rotating for a while longer on this hot late June day. We continued on monitoring the motometer with no problems. After some exploring and lunch we headed back home and as soon as we hit the highway the belt blew off completely. A passing driver yelled out that he saw the belt fly out and confirmed my fears.Yet the coupe jugged on maintaining 80 Ks or 50 MPH. As long as we kept moving the engined kept cool, but as soon as we hit a traffic light the red started climbing. At one point I could hear the overflow starting to hiss which told me I was making more steam the anything and I was forced to pull over. I waited for the pressure to drop and opened the cap up and vented off the remaining steam. I had the wifey fire the engine up and added fresh water to just above the baffles and we made the last twenty minutes back into the driveway. The wife then asks me why I didn't have a spare belt in the car and I told her I was counting on her wearing some pantyhose that day, but as it was so hot she had not, so again, it was all her fault. Women! So the thermo-siphon works as long as you can keep some air moving through the radiator to help cool the engine. Cheers!