What would cause this?

[rusty ol ranger]

Yesterday bringing home a load of wood with my F250 i heard a weird "whop whop" noise under the hood.

Stopped and popped it open and the belt is riding up off the pulley and self destructing.

It has 2 different serpintine style belts, one manually tensioned that goes around the alternator, crank and water pump, then another one with a spring tensioner that goes around then AC, PS, Water pump, and crank.

The AC/PS was the problem.

Was only a mile away so i drove it rest of the way, got back and did some looking and the massive bracket that holds the PS pump and AC compressor had cracked around one of the mounting bolts and allowed it to tilt back, causing the belt to ride up.

This bracket is a massive heavy looking piece of i believe aluminum or possibly die cast. Never in my life have i heard of this happening.

I didnt get no weird vibrations or anything...you think it just cracked due to age? If yall think theres an underlying issue id like to check into it before replacing it.

 

[Curious Hound]

Probably old age, years of tension and vibration. Perhaps a pre-existing flaw in that casting, I wouldn’t read too much into it unless it happens again.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Probably old age, years of tension and vibration. Perhaps a pre-existing flaw in that casting, I wouldn’t read too much into it unless it happens again.

Im hoping i can find one cheap locally...200-250 bucks for a used ebay one.

Of course 302/351W ones are a dime a dozen.

 

[Terrys87]

I have seen a bracket several years ago that just cracked. I too was wondering what caused it. I could not find it and so changed it expecting the problem to go come back. It never did. It was cast so figured it was just age. Could just be the so many temp cycles that the right vibration finally got it.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

I have seen a bracket several years ago that just cracked. I too was wondering what caused it. I could not find it and so changed it expecting the problem to go come back. It never did. It was cast so figured it was just age. Cold just be the so many temp cycles that the right vibration finally got it.

I did find one. On a 90 F250 at a local yard. 40 bucks. Im gonna go yank it in the morning.

Didnt know this till today but evidently econolines ran a different PS pump then the F series. One yard had an 94 E350 motorhome back there and the bracket was very similar but luckly i spotted the pump mounting being slightly different.