[T3] Well now this presents a conundrum! NOS 6 VLT Fan BELT??

[Dave Hall]

I do keep a spare belt with me, just force of habit from Beetle days, and it
sits on the spare wheel, but when the voltage regulator failed, it had the
same result anyway!  Luckily it was only 10 miles to the shop to get
another, although it was raining so I needed wipers and lights.  

You can't carry spares of everything!

I suppose in 40 years of VW motoring I've only been forced to stop driving a
few times to sort out a problem, and only once needed a tow home (I worry
for the next time when I say that!).

When my old Golf 3 alternator belt broke, it only stopped the charging -
nothing else uses that belt, which was a blessing.

Dave
UK VW Type 3&4 Club
===================

-----Original Message-----
From: type3-vwtype3.org-bounces at lists.vwtype3.org
[mailto:type3-vwtype3.org-bounces at lists.vwtype3.org] On Behalf Of Jim Adney
Sent: 20 February 2013 04:18
To: type3 at vwtype3.org
Subject: Re: [T3] Well now this presents a conundrum! NOS 6 VLT Fan BELT??

On 19 Feb 2013 at 19:23, Keith Park wrote:

> Really?
> When I used to work in the garage, 25 years ago, we replaced broken 
> belts all the time.  The one on the Crate broke shortly after I 
> started it up again 10 years ago, the 87 RX7 shreaded its OEM belts by 
> 97, they don't last
> 3 years on my Golf!  Granted, our T3 belts are very lightly loaded 
> when adjusted properly but Im not willing to get left somewhere by 
> trusting old rubber, even if it was better in the old days than now.

Yes, really.

No matter what field you're in, you can always find someone who says that he
replaces <some> part more often than you do, and it's never led to problems.
There no logical way to defend against such an argument, because the guy who
replaces most often will always be able to claim that this is the "right"
thing to do.

Garages replace any part that they can get away with, not because it's
necessary, but because that's how they make their money.

As far as "getting left somewhere" goes, the one and only time I ever had a
belt break on one of my Type 3s, I was in Chicago on my way home. It was
daytime and sunny, so I didn't need headlights or wipers. I was 150 miles
from home.

I continued home without incident.

Note that our cars are somewhat unique in that we can do this. Other cars,
where the belt also drives the cooling system won't survive this.

--
*******************************
Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
*******************************

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