Another 914 work day shot

Air pump froze on my wife's Benz and in the short period before my she shut the car off, it disintegrated the belt, a plastic idler pulley, and left melted rubber in the serpentine pulley channels (metal). How do I clean off this junk? I'm scraping it off with a small screw driver but it's like glue. Any spray that will soften it up? Lacquer thinner? Brake cleaner? Oven cleaner?

idler pulley:

The "bonded" rubber.

Have you tried a wire brush.

I'd try a wire wheel on a drill or bench grinder to take that off.

That would be great but the pulleys are on the engine and I have a very small area to work with. This is what it looks like behind the radiator...

Either unbolt the pulleys and clean them, or do it with a hand wire brush like Remil suggested. Or just put a new belt on and let it clean it off. Just get the bulk of the old rubber off so the new belt can properly track on the pulleys.

I would not use any solvent. You will never get it out of the small v grooves and it will make the new belt fall apart fast.
How about a Dremel with a wire brush to get the worst stuff and then just run a new belt on it and keep an eye on it. The new belt will clean it up, but the cleaning could cause it to wear out too fast.

George

I didn't think of solvent affecting the new belt, you guy's are awesome. I don't want to screw off the pulleys, most are free wheeling so it would be a bear to remove and install/tighten them. I can remove the radiator and have at it with a wire wheel or brush. Good point on the new belt cleaning it off...

Those pulleys and idler arms have bearings inside that fail....they are designed to be pulled and replaced. Pull the thing off, wire brush it and put it back on...ain't rocket science...

QUOTE (Neo914 @ Jun 11 2005, 11:28 PM)

Air pump froze on my wife's Benz and in the short period before my she shut the car off, it disintegrated the belt, a plastic idler pulley, and left melted rubber in the serpentine pulley channels (metal). How do I clean off this junk?

I can't help myself...

How long do we all imagine this took to happen?


M

QUOTE ("*" @ Jun 11 2005, 09:30 PM)

Those pulleys and idler arms have bearings inside that fail....they are designed to be pulled and replaced.  Pull the thing off, wire brush it and put it back on...ain't rocket science...

Sure, the idler and tension pulleys have bearings that come off easy. The crank may come off easy too but the Mercedes w/p, a/c, p/s, and alt., are designed to be serviced and replaced as units...

I aren't a rocket scientist.

Plus I'm trying to avoid Dirk Wright thinking, if you replace one then you might as well replace them all.

QUOTE (redshift @ Jun 11 2005, 09:45 PM)

QUOTE (Neo914 @ Jun 11 2005, 11:28 PM) Air pump froze on my wife's Benz and in the short period before my she shut the car off, it disintegrated the belt, a plastic idler pulley, and left melted rubber in the serpentine pulley channels (metal).  How do I clean off this junk? I can't help myself... How long do we all imagine this took to happen? M

She actually informed me a couple of times about the noise but of course when I checked it I didn't hear anything. Fortunately the belt jammed a 1/2 block from our house and I cut off the remains. The car was very hard to steer to our house w/o the p/s pump working.

heat gun to soften... then scrape.. with strong solvent.

I'd put a new belt on too, run it at idle for a few minutes and see what happens... worst thing it could do is leave it there.. and no change, and thats not going to effect a new belt for just a few minutes...

best case... it cleans it all off.