RTH: serpentine belt snapped...

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petveedub

petveedub

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I will be doing more research, but any quick input would be appreciated. The serpentine belt snapped on my wife's '01 LX470 while she was dropping my daughter off at school.

Other than telling me a few days ago that it "might" be a bit more sluggish than usual, their have been no other issues. No overheating, charging fine, oil pressure good. No changes in driving habits. The only thing that has changed is it has finally gotten cool enough to use the heater.

The belt has no noticeable cracking, and is not worn except at its breaking point. All pulleys seem to spin freely except the fan pulley. The fan itself turns by hand, but not the pulley behind it. The fan pulley also has buildup from the worn spot on the belt stuck to it.

Also, their are metal particles behind the fan pulley as well as in various other spots around the front of the engine. I can't find a visible worn area that the metal may have come from.

Should the fan pulley turn by hand, and if not does it point to a bad water pump, what with no previous issues (overheating, noise, etc.)?

Thanks
 
You should be able to check it on the truck, which it sounds like you did already. You'll need to unbolt the bracket assembly the pulley rides in.

It might be a good time to replace the fan clutch as well, you may want to do some research on the forum about the effort involved with that (I've never done one personally).
 
Yep, fan bracket bearing seized. Nothing on that shaft/bearing except the fan assembly so if it does not spin freely with the belt off it is bad.
Pick up a new one and the steps for replacement should be pretty clear from looking at it.
 
It is indeed the fan bracket. Thank you.

Now is their a trick to getting the thing off. I have all of the bolts and nuts removed, and with a little brass drift persuasion on the pulley mounting surface I have the top of the bracket moved out about an 1/8". That's where it wants to stay.

I couldn't find a fan bracket removal process in the FSM, but from the diagrams and just plain looking at it, it seems pretty straight forward.

Any ideas.

Thanks
 
You find the two bolts that go in down low? From below IIRC, well hidden, should be able to find it in scottm's timing write up around here... It's also located by a pin or sleeve so will have to come forward.

If you have a new one or a picture of one the lower bolts are evident.
 
The 2 bottom bolts are hard to get to and there's a small bracket that has to be bent up out of the way. The write up that helped me is here:

https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/timing-belt-for-dummies-writeup.431177/

The fan bracket removal starts about post 7. You won't have to take as much off first as scottm did, because you're not doing the full t-belt service, but the fan bracket removal should be doable with that thread's help.
 
Thanks for all the help guys. I hate to admit it, but it was indeed the two lower bolts that come in from the side. Luckily the light attempt at brass drift persuasion didn't cause any damage.

On a side note, due to a few budget constraints until after Christmas, and needing the part immediately, I replaced the fan bracket with an autozone unit. The bracket has a 3 month warranty so I will replace it with OEM in January. The autozone bracket has made in China cast into it ( I figured as much). What I didn't expect was the weight difference. The original Toyota part was almost a pound and a half heavier. Also, I layed out the hole pattern of both parts on paper , and the knockoff was slightly off. It didn't cause much trouble on installation, but a couple of bolts could have went in easier.

It's finally back together though, and hopefully the new bracket will last as long as I need it too.

Thanks again for all the help.
 
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