clp86rom

Hi guys,

Though I am new to this wonderful forum, I am definitely not new to the car scene. With that said, before you guys flame me, I have done a lot of searching and reading on the whole topic of the C32 AMG Supercharger; Electromagnetic Clutch; Charger Shaft; Supercharger pulley; and other pulleys...

Though I have read a ton and subscribed to a few good threads on this topic, I still have a specific question that I could not really find good posts/answers on.

The deal: Here is what unfortunately happened to my Eurocharged C32 AMG 61mm Supercharger Pulley with ECU and TCU Tune.















Note: I am not flaming Eurocharged.

Took it apart...















The situation: I have two very small not deep at all indents on the Charger Shaft which I think is not that big of a deal, what do you all think?

The damaged parts...



















But the purpose of this thread is that I have this slight play left and right in the Charger Shaft with this slight noise as witnessed in the following video, and best heard in the very last 10 seconds.


And a second better video with the camera stationary.


Is this okay? Is this still healthy? Am I good to put on the new replacement supercharger pulley?

Lenin

I would say that the two notches on the shaft are fine. The issues is the play in the shaft itself. I replaced my supercharger when it developed play like this. I think you are risking things flying all over and causing damage. At the least you may get the supercharger to the point where it would be impossible to rebuild.
Tell us more about what happened to the SC pulley. Are you sure it is a 65mm and not a 61mm pulley?

JamesC32

I wonder if the aluminum material their making the pulleys with is a good idea!!

clp86rom

I will post up some more pictures before I took it apart, after I took it apart, and pictures of the damaged parts from different angles, etc.

And yes, it is a 61mm SC pulley. My apologies, I made the proper changes.

clp86rom

Once again...my intensions with this thread is not to flame Eurocharged in any ways, shape, or form. On the other hand, I do also wonder myself if the choice of aluminum is wise, especially with the SC pulley being so thin overall, but more so, in the threaded area where the belts runs through. And it definitely broke, split apart, in the channel of the threaded area.

I am sure Eurocharged has more R&D to back up the aluminum choice, and maybe it was just something with my setup being defective on why it went all wrong.

splinter

^ That breakage appears to be simple instance of metallurgical failure.
Each groove in our pulley is a naturally occurring stress riser, and yours happened to give up the ghost

Have you contacted its vendor source a ‘goodwill’ replacement?

clp86rom

Super Charger Sound w/ video help

So the above thread is one of the many that I found to be extremely useful for my specific situation. Reading this thread makes me wondering if my Supercharger couplers are bad, and if my Supercharger needs a rebuild? Can anyone confirm this? Or can anyone suggest any other ways to diagnose the health of the Supercharger and its internals?

I would like to make sure everything with the Supercharger is fine before I put all the new replacement parts back on to start driving the car again.

Lenin

The fact that this is a 61mm pulley is very important. What I see from your pictures is that you where using what appears to be OEM shims. Did they fit inside the pulley touching the bearing or were they too big to fit inside? If the shims where not resting on the bearing, this should have caused strain on the pulley that could have resulted in this kind of failure. I hope EC have an opinion on this. Here is a picture of the OEM pulley and the 61mm pulley. See below how the 611mm pulley bearing is covered by the pulley itself while the OEM pulley has the bearing exposed.


A bad SC coupler is what I was referring to earlier. Need to find a source of the internal parts for a rebuild myself. For now using the spare SC.

JamesC32

I think the 2 lines on the supercharger shaft was caused by the pulley coming apart and 2 of the threads rubbing on it caused the two grooves, it looks likely to me that the threads would line up with the grooves , as far as repairing it, the 2 grooves will be sitting under the bearing and should not pose any problems since the bearing is not spinning on it,, just my mechanical interp.

JamesC32

When I changed my bearing on my SC pulley I did have play in my SC shaft also, I left it alone but I did change the SC fluid while I had a good view of the plug, been 12000 miles and all is still good, and I'm running a 181 CP...

clp86rom

I might have a newer version as mine is a bit different, it is closer to the stock unit, i took some pictures to showcase the difference between your unit and mine.











As you can see from the pictures, my unit has this washer on the inside of the pulley where the bearing sits on (as seen in picture #1), than in the 4th and 5th picture you can see that the shim does sit on the bearing itself.

clp86rom

Note: I did update my first post with more pictures and a second better video showcasing the shaft play.

I assume buying a new supercharger unit from Mercedes Benz is just not logical as it will most likely cost thousands of dollars but has anyone ever rebuilt their unit? And if so, what are good shops/companies that rebuild our units? And, can they be found used but rebuilt for a decent price?

Lenin

Mystery deepens.

vaiste001

Indeed...

Not the first one to go.

I have done some measurements on different manufacturers SC pulleys vs stock and the one using different bearing actually meets the specifications for the belt and the others do not.

The pulley sold as 62 mm meets the specs while the one sold as 61 does not.

Also aluminum is not good for high temperature applications. So you can make your own conclusions on what happened with the OPs pulley.

Lenin

Can you provide further details on how the 61mm pulley does not meet the spec while the 62mm does? Is it the bearing that is being used?

Supgee

I'm surprised Eurocharged hasn't made as statement about this, especially because it is not the first reported failure of this type.

Makes me hesitant to purchase an aftermarket supercharger pulley.

Pansu

Aluminium is just bad material for pulley, nothing else. This not first and deffenetly not last broken pulley.

vaiste001

Take a look at the angels and depth of the grooves and compare them to the belt / stock pulley.

Jerry from Eurocharged has previously stated that they have an internal system for customer support issues so that's why they do not comment on forums. If you have questions ask directly from Eurocharged.

Buy 65 mm (stock bearing) or 62 (non-stock bearing) mm pulley that is not made of aluminum.

Lenin

I see the difference and the depth of the grooves. Without taking the pulley apart, it's hard to say how much metal is left on the pulley after the grooves are cut into it. Are you saying that a combination of aluminum and the thickness of what is left after cutting the grooves contributed to the weakness and failure of the pulley? I'm trying to figure out if a better bearing can save this pulley or this is just a failed design and wasted money. I'm running this pulley for now but am worried now.
Any known source for the 62mm pulley?

vaiste001

Pansu was experimenting with a custom pulley and if I recall correctly he decided that 66.4 mm was the lowest safe point for the stock bearing. We actually discussed about using a different bearing on our national forum (december 2011) and there were the candidates:

32 x 47 x 18 NACHI 32BG04S5G
32 x 47 x 18 JHB AC324718
32 x 52 x 20 KML AC325220/18
32 x 47 x 18 NSKF NAC324718

And for the 62 mm "Karmen" pulley they ended up with the 32 x 47 x 18 with a metallic spacer.

62 mm is made of steel and the one I have is very good quality. On crossfire forum nickname rcompart was selling these. I know he is also in mbworld but don't remember his nick.

Check out this link

This is the exact same 62 mm that I have. The picture does not show a spacer that goes between the bearing and the washer.

Lenin

Thanks for the info but you are not answering my question as to what you think went wrong. It's OK. I understand if you don't want to get involved in this on a public forum.
I spoke with Rudy (Rcompart) and he doesn't have any more pulleys. I have the link that you have provided but for now I'm somewhat hesitant to buy a pulley from the Sawing Machines section of a web site.

vaiste001

Not worried about providing thoughts and feedback on public forums. I wish more people would do that. For good and bad experiences.

The material used in the pulley (aluminum) and the thickness (or lack of it) were the reasons that caused this pulley to crack. I have been running 65 mm Eurocharged pulley (steel) for about 6000 km and that has been alright. So, 65 mm made out of steel or 62 mm would be safe in my opinion. Forget about aluminum.

Ok, how about the 61 mm made from steel? I think it could work but still the thickness for long term use is not enough. These are only my opinions and you can freely disagree.

Lenin

I appreciate your feedback. I have been running 181crank and 65 SC but started noticing that the rivets on the 65mm don't look as good as they did when the pulley was new (about 6000 miles ago). So, I switched to the 61mm SC and OEM crank and now see this post.

vaiste001

Is your 65 mm pulley from the first or the second batch? I know some of the first batch pulleys were replaced by Eurocharged for some reason. Maybe the material used in the springs was not correct?

Lenin

I think it's the second batch but I'm not sure. It was purchased on 6/14/2012. I'll contact EC regarding this issue tomorrow. I'm not worried about EC. I have known Jerry since his days with LET and he always (at least for me) stood behind his products.