Help! What Have I Bent? '91 Ls400

[godpossessed]

My wife calls me this afternoon to say that the car began ticking and then smoke poured out from under the hood. I open the hood to find the drive belt in tatters. I get a new belt and put it on and then had her crank the car. It was making a slight ticking/bumping sound and the fan was not spinning smoothly. Upon closer inspection I notice that the pulley that the fan bolts to is wobbling like it's on a bent shaft. I'm sure that when the belt broke it jammed up. Could that have enough force to bend the pulley or the shaft? Please tell me that isn't the water pump shaft.

thanks all

Mark

[mehullica]

The part you need to replace is the fan bracket. It is not a quick repair. Might want to have the timing belt/water pump replaced as it's not much more work while the fan bracket is off.

[godpossessed]

The timing belt/water pump is less than 10K miles old. What should I do?

[shiggins]

I recently had loud squealing and metal shaving on top of my water pump. I thought is was the water pump, but it turned out to be a bad fan bracket bearing.

From your description, I agree with mehullica's diagnosis. It sounds like the fan bracket.

With only 10K miles on the timing belt and water pump, forget about replacing them.

The sad thing is that the fan bracket replacement is only slightly less trouble than the belt/pump replacement.

I just recently did it myself. It takes many hours, but it is 'doable.'

There are very good pictoral instructions in the forum... look for 'timing belt replacement' or this link:

http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...=14705&st=0

On page 2 of the 4 page procedure (!), you will see where you remove the fan bracket.

Good luck!

[godpossessed]

I really don't want to do any unnecessary steps. Do I need to remove the alternator? What actually is covering that last bolt and that last nut on the fan bracket? I have 3 bolts and a nut out now. I have the crank pulley off and the radiator out.

thanks

[godpossessed]

Well it's just about done and this is what I believe the minimum to be removed is:

Air duct and dust covers

Engine under cover

radiator

fan assembly

drive belt

fan belt idler pulley

a/c compressor (loosen)

coil

upper high tension cord cover

left upper timing belt cover

left middle timing belt cover (loosen)

left engine wire cover

middle right timing belt cover (loosen)

The fan bracket may now be removed by slightly lifting the right middle timing belt cover and easing the fan bracket out.

hope this helps someone.

Mark

[UCF3]

What was the status of your serpentine belt(drive belt), thermostat? also if you need a fan clutch- I can give you mine.

[godpossessed]

What was the status of your serpentine belt(drive belt), thermostat? also if you need a fan clutch- I can give you mine.

The drive belt broke all to pieces when the bearing in the fan bracket let go. It was old. I am assuming that the fan clutch is OK but I haven't tried it. It feels smooth with a slight damping of the rotation when you turn it by hand. I'll have it back on the road Saturday and let you know.

thanks mucho

Mark

[godpossessed]

All is well. The fan bracket R&R is not all that bad. It includes a bunch of the dissasembly that the timing belt change has, but without the delicate part of !Removed! around with the valve timing. Also you don't have to remove most of the passenger side stuff. Just loosen it. The a/c compressor must be loosened to allow a bolt or two to be accessed but the crank pulley can stay on. If I had it to do over I could easily knock it out in 3 hrs. Thanks everyone.

Mark