Just got home from Gatlinburg and smoked a belt and a pulley. PIX!!

Drummer

Registered User
Well just got back about an hour or so ago. Spent 3 days in the beautiful Smokey Mountains. The car great and handled the mountain with no problem at all. It was a blast. The car handles the turns like nothing. Just wish I had a automatic instead of a 5 speed. I think my left leg is about an inch bigger now after the trip. Headed home and got just about 20 minutes west of Nashville and heard a thud. The car was making a squeaking noise right before we left so I figured it might be the power steering pump going south but that wasn't the case. The upper pulley seized and ate the freakin belt. We scrambled off the interstate and put the GPS unit to the test. My wife put in for mechanic or auto shop and it took us to a place about 10 minutes off the interstate in a rural area. It showed up on the GPS as an auto repair shop. We stopped and I almost thought I was in the movie deliverance. Ya know "Squeal like a pig " and that. Well long story semi short the car was fixed. I took off the pulley with MY tools and took off the lower hose myself to get the belt on. The jack maggot charged me $121 dollars to fix it. If there was a parts store anywhere around I could have tackled it myself for about $30. I am mad but what can you do? You are stuck.. Here is the belt and the fried pulley.
 

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I forget what the road is called, I think it is the dragon, or dragons tail or somthing along those lines, but anyway, did you take the Sc on it.
(only asking because we took it on in a ford escape, white knuckle drive)
 
Went form Pigeon Forge, through the mountains, through downtown Gatlinburg to Cherokee North Carolina.
 
I have family all through TN, should have given a call. But west of Nashville there anit much, least not til Jackson.
 
Just dug out my receipts and just as I thought, that pulley is about 5 months old. Bought it at Autozone. I keep receipts for everything I have bought for this car. Think I am gonna take the belt, bought at Autozone, and the pulley and and the bill and take it to the Autozone I got this at and raise 9 kinds of he$$ just because I want to. Probably won't get me much as far as money but it sure will feel good......
 
Just dug out my receipts and just as I thought, that pulley is about 5 months old. Bought it at Autozone. I keep receipts for everything I have bought for this car. Think I am gonna take the belt, bought at Autozone, and the pulley and and the bill and take it to the Autozone I got this at and raise 9 kinds of he$$ just because I want to. Probably won't get me much as far as money but it sure will feel good......

Well, nice belt)
 
Consider yourself delivered!

My absolutely beautiful wife hails from Flag Pond, Tennessee. We have a home there were we spend summers every year. (Her cousin owns the only new car dealership in the county and it's Ford!) Having said that, you cannot help but notice that folks are allowed to evolve in the mountains, . . . OR NOT! Having said THAT, you have to know where to go, wherever you go. Perhaps its time for folks to take the initiative to update the map and contact information. It's a neat resource. It would be nice to know that someone has your back when you're out of your comfort zone and it's a way to stay connected. If you look closely, by the way, you may find that some fine folks hail from that part of America.:)
 
Nice comments. Not saying that everyone in the mountainous region of Tennessee is a hillbilly, believe me, I get enough crap about being from Mississippi. I didn't think about the member map before I left and should have. Need to have GPS coordinates for everyone on that map to. My name isn't on the thing either. I think we are going to try to head back up there in November before they close the roads for snow. The car runs better in cold weather anyway. Gas mileage sucked this time. I swapped out the single squirt er whatever fuel injector for the 4 hole ones and that seemed to rob my fuel mileage. I was getting 32 MPG in my trip to New Mexico. It's either that or the tire size difference. Not sure. The car handled like it was on rails around the hair pin corners although there was a little pop in the front suspension. Not the tie rod ends either. Gonna check into that.
 
On my last go-around, I was getting 14mpg highway. I don't expect it to get any better this time around
 
I went to gatliburg for a wedding a few months ago. I wish I would have take the sc, awesome hills and corners. When I get home, I'll try to post the picture I took of 3 bear I encountered when leaving in the morning. Should have taken a picture of somebodys trash that they strung all over the road a couple hundred feet up from where I saw them also! Wish I could have stayed longer and did everything in Pigeon forge.

chris
 
That sucks - and I bet if you look at the name on the pulley bearing it says China!I just had an a/c delete pulley go out with 250 miles on it. - Made in China.
 
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