Gruvenparts aux pulley failure

[Toad 0]

Afternoon,

 

Was wondering if anyone else has had issues with the Gruvenparts aux tensioner pulley? I've resurrected the VR6 after 11 months off the road and noticed a chattering noise recently. On further inspection it seems that the aluminium pulley has corroded slightly where the bearing fits, this corrosion product has broken down with vibration and allowed the bearing to move inside the pulley itself. This has resulted in more wear and eventually quite a lot of play and noise.

 

We've pulled it off (wheeeeeee) pressed the bearing out as a lip had formed as the pulley has worn, cleaned it up and hopefully stuck the bearing back in place for the time being with loctite. Currently giving it some time for the loctite to go off before trying it again.

 

Bit sad about this going wrong as it wasn't cheap back in the day. Might try and machine it out and fit a ring between the pulley and the bearing when I have more time.

 

This might be as a result of the corrado being off the road for an extended period of time.

[Jim 1]

Are Gruvenparts still going mate? I wonder if it'd be worth dropping them a line. Not sure what sort of warranty they offer as I guess it's been on the car a while?

[Toad 0]

Dunno, it was bought in one of the early group buys, before they had a distributor in the UK. I think Kev ran it, but it was a loooooong time back, maybe 5 years? Just put it back together and there is no noise. I hope that the loctite will work for now. Going to try to get hold of one of the OE plastic ones (I should have one, but no idea where) as a back up.

[Jim Bowen 1]

Was thinking of buying the whole pulley set from them. Was just the other day I was looking. But decided against it in the end. Which was nice.

 

I bought a new ina tensioner and it came with a plastic pulley which doesn't look as decent as the original.