Pewter KPA

Last night on my way home the old girl died right as I was pulling her into the driveway. It starts right up but as soon as you would give it any gas (enough to engage the blower) it would stall out. I noticed it smelled like clutch....only one clutch on this car. I tried a few more back up/pull up sessions to confirm and low and behold the old sc pulley was smoking.

Now the optimist in me is thinking "your car has 117k" on the clock. I'm sure you just need a new pulley / clutch." We'll this morning I go out again and this time I have someone drive it with the hood open so I can see what's going on. Now I can see the pulley clutch is engaging but as soon as it does it locks up....not good. I'm an optimist but I'm having a hard time thinking this is anything other than my supercharger being fubar'd.

So has anyone rebuilt one of these blowers?
Are they hard to find used?
And how the hell do you get the stock pulley off? Are people using breaker bars?

Thanks guys...

black06c230

That's an easy fix with a new pulley from Shardul. Cost is like 500 or so.

Pewter KPA

Are you sure it's the pulley only? I would think if the pulley was bad it would just spin against the clutch and not engage the blower. To me the fact that it's seizing leads me to believe that the clutch is engaging but the blower screws won't turn. I hope you are right as that is MUCH cheaper.

shardul

iTrader: (1)

remove the sc belt and drive it to see if problem persists

Pewter KPA

Thank you for chiming in shardul, I was just going to pm you. I'm curious as to what removing the sc belt is going to tell me? Thanks for working with me on this.

Pewter KPA

Since it takes 30 seconds to pull the belt off I gave it a shot. The car drives much better, no more stalling. But it's obviously going nowhere if I give it any substantial gas due or no boost.

So what does this tell you? Again thanks for helping.

211.070

Rotate the supercharger by hand. The feel should help determine where the problem lies.

Pewter KPA

The supercharger will not turn by hand from what I can see. I would think I should be able to move it by grabbing the black pulley but she's not budging. This would explain the clutch smoking and the pulley locking up when trying to engage.

Joncl

Hmmmm, you may have to take off the sc to check the rotors
How many miles do you have on the car?

Pewter KPA

117k, has anyone successfully rebuilt one? Is it even possible?

CLS_724

You are going to have to pull the S/C off and inspect it internally.

bstudey01

That does not sound good, I know I just had my SC fluid changed and it was very low, I beleive they got out only about 30ml. My car is an 03 with 78K miles on it. Sounds like a great time to consider a whipple!!

Zod

might have something lodged in the blades of the supercharger :-/

Critter

Was there any rattling or grinding noise previous to the clutch smoking, If so possible bearing seized in the front of the supercharger. Try to place a belt wrench on the supercharger inner pulley face and try to turn the supercharger in the reverse of normal rotation as to free the stuck charger. Or just remove the clutch and look at the bearing behind it.

Pewter KPA

Thank you everyone, I'm going to take it off tomorrow and see what I'm working with. Hopefully it's not a total loss. I'll post back with my findings.

Lelix

Sound like you have a few possible scenarios:
-Something got "inhaled" and jammed the rotor blades
-One of the bearings seized up or came apart jamming or colliding the blades together
I doubt there is much left to rebuild, your clutch is cooked by this point, if the rotor blades or the case is damaged you need a new blower. If it is strictly a bearing issue and no internal damage was done, you can try sourcing the new bearings through NTN.

320 dreamer

contact grip grip on here. i think he has a s/c that is for sale

Toadster

what bearing #'s are inside?

Lelix

The bearings will have an NTN part number. Last time I checked it will not register on their site under part number search. I spoke with their engineering dept a couple years back and they said that the part number I supplied was an OEM specific bearing and was not available separately. However you should be able to have one matched by specs(OD/ID, Thickness, type, etc)

Grip Grip

PM sent. I've got a pristine supercharger in the garage looking for a new owner.

Pewter KPA

Thanks guys, I'm sort of stuck until Monday. That's the soonest I can have the time, space and equipment to rip this thing apart. I will report my findings.

Grip grip thank you, if you can sit tight for 48 hours I would appreciate it.

Pewter KPA

Blower is definitely seized. Grip Grip was nice enough to ship me a good used unit today so I should have it here by Wednesday. When I get it in IM going to swap it over and take apart the seized one to see what happened. I dont really have the luxury of down time so a swap is the fastest way for me to get out of this. If the blower is salvageable I will just have a spare or I can talk AMS into making a whipple conversion using the CAD data from the old unit lol.

I am using this as an opportunity to change my injector O-rings, Valve cover gaskets, powder coat my plenums and just do a general gasket overhaul up top. Just trying to find the silver lining here lol.

Stay tuned for possible SC carnage pics :/

Critter

Good you can get replacement, but by chance have you worked on the intake system lately, IE changed filters or removed anything associated with the induction? Have you checked or changed the oil in the SC case ?

Pewter KPA

I have never checked or changed the oil in the SC, I have read its not needed to change it but then just recently I have read on here that its certainly a good idea to do so.

The intake system has not been touched in probably 8 months. I put new filters in back then.

Exotic-metal55

The oil tends to get low in these units and then bearings will get hot and sieze. I have not heard ot hat yet but have heard of a lot of units that people find low on oil.

glad you find a good used unit.