Emergency Fan Belt

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Speaking as one who has done and is still doing a bit of remote area cruising much of it in areas where a working engine is essential I carry a spare FW circ pump, a spare alternator (both belt driven ) and a spare starter motor ( Volvo MD17D.... left handed ).

And yes I have had to make use of all three over the years.....

Re the spare belt... take out the FW pump...any belt would foul the starter ... take out the alt... no way of tensioning the belt.

Sometimes the simplest solution is the best solution.

Is that a Gardener? Nice!

Yes, I will have spare FW and sea water pumps for both main and generator, and spare starters for both, but I don't think I'm going to carry complete spare alternators, other than the bulk power producing Leece Neville, as the electrical output from the other two is not mission critical. I think it is rational to carry bearings and brushes for both, and emergency fan belts.

Speaking of spares, and a bit of drift, I am surprised that Yanmar want $1000 for the cheap Hitachi alternator yet only charge less than $500 for the complete sea water pump. Weird. I carry a cheap aftermarket starter instead of the $1000 original one, but I have bearings and brushes for the original starter so that I would never need the aftermarket one except as a temporary fix.

[Steven UK]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Thanks; I believe that this is logical.

If you buy the alternator from Yanmar, it's $1000. An aftermarket one, though, is only $100 or so.

But I don't really want to carry a spare -- I have half a ton of spares and tools as it is and I'm fighting with volume and weight. I think the risk of failure is extremely small since there are no loads on it, and as you say, the water pump without any alternator is a very small load.

I am encouraged now and I think I will acquire a couple of different of these devices.

Yet another plus is that getting the main engine back into service after an alternator failure will be much faster if all I'm doing is removing or cutting away the belt and installing one of these.

If I carry a spare set of bearings, then I only need to get to the nearest auto electric shop, or maybe I can even change them out myself -- I do have a bearing puller on board. Bad bearings is the only risk since I don't really care that much about the electrical output, and anyway with no load on the electrical parts of the alternator it is almost impossible to imagine how it could fail. I guess I might as well have brushes, if I'm ordering bearings.

Also the tube style were stretchy enough that they could be removed and refined with no tools. https://goo.gl/images/pdRXcV I think this is similar at least

[zeehag]

in dire emergency nylon stockings do nicely as emergency belts. should always keep some in your boat or car. i learned this ages ago when working volunteer in sporty car racing and in automotive class i took so i could fix my buick gs 455 stage I.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by zeehag

in dire emergency nylon stockings do nicely as emergency belts. should always keep some in your boat or car. i learned this ages ago when working volunteer in sporty car racing and in automotive class i took so i could fix my buick gs 455 stage I.

Yes, I think that driving just the water pump, a nylon stocking would probably work in a pinch. Don't know how LONG it would last, but might be enough for harbour maneuvers.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Steven UK

Also the tube style were stretchy enough that they could be removed and refined with no tools. https://goo.gl/images/pdRXcV I think this is similar at least

Thanks; that looks great. I'll acquire a few of these so that it will be possible to experiment.

[zeehag]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Yes, I think that driving just the water pump, a nylon stocking would probably work in a pinch. Don't know how LONG it would last, but might be enough for harbour maneuvers.

diesel donot need alternator to get to repair yard. they do need water., nylons are strong. they have gotten sporty cars 100 miles. i think you will be able to emergently arrive safely as possible into a repair yard with use of nylons, as long as brackets are serviceable. if one nylon pops, there is a second one free in each package.
if bracket fail, is a different issue.