Write-Up: Supercharger Coupler Replacement (Series II)

Jack the R wrote:

I pulled it all apart and resealed with the high temp anaerobic last night.  I hope I got all the RTV off, personally I would not recommend using RTV due to the difficulty of removal.  Permatex makes an RTV dissolver but it has loads of one star reviews on Amazon.  Apparently it is the consistency of Jell-O, imagine trying to get that to hold on your SC.  You'd have to hold it in place with your hands.  I found a bunch of other tips for removing silicone, most of which are too destructive to be using on a machined aluminum surface.  I ended up using mineral oil, which seemed to work, but who knows I could still have an invisible spot of silicone waiting to cause me a leak later.

I also would not recommend using a steel razor blade to remove gasket material on an aluminum surface.  The razor is both too hard, and too big to use while the SC is on the engine.  I cut a strip off an old credit card, that worked great.

HINT HINT you can sharpen the edge of a credit card not unlike how one sharpens a knife; for some scraping jobs that could help.

My credit card didn't start out with a bevel, but it had one after an hour of scraping silicon. There's no need with the stock gasket material though, a little gasket remover and it comes right off. I hope Permatex's high temp anaerobic is as easy to remove.

Or you could just buy plastic razor blades. I think Lowes has them. Automotive stores might, too.

Link is for reference....
BLADES

The great thing about a strip of credit card for this job is that it bends. I'd take plastic razor blades over metal razor blades for this job, but they look like they'd be too big and inflexible to easily clean the SC while it's on the engine.

Jack the R wrote:

The great thing about a strip of credit card for this job is that it bends.  I'd take plastic razor blades over metal razor blades for this job, but they look like they'd be too big and inflexible to easily clean the SC while it's on the engine.  

A little awkward for sure. I use straight razor blades with the tool for scraping registration/inspection stickers from the windshield. You have to maneuver it several ways but you can get to all the surfaces on the snout to SC main body.

I think something could be wrong here - less than 1000 miles on the snout rebuild

Jack,
Take the belt off and give it the wiggle test. If the bearing is gone, the seal won't be far behind. I still have the original snout bearing and seal at 192K. Replaced the coupler about 1 year ago.

The pulley feels solid as a rock. It seems I'm especially lucky in the supercharger snout area. I can't think of anything I could have done or the car could be doing to cause multiple failures in this area though. I don't have any engine mods and I'm not using the pulley as leverage for a pry bar. Replacing the SC snout was the last job I did in the engine bay.

Jack the R wrote:

The pulley feels solid as a rock.

Then it has to be bent. What else would cause it to wobble like that?

LARRY70GS wrote:

Jack the R wrote:

The pulley feels solid as a rock.

Then it has to be bent.  What else would cause it to wobble like that?

...in my experience that stupid pulley bends a bit each time you pop it off the snout. They are not disposables but should be marked as such (grumble grumble).

Agree the force required to pull the OEM pulley is huge, could bend the pulley or shaft. This is a good argument for installing a modular pulley system. A 3.8" is available, but why not 3.6"?

Well, it's hard to tell anything from this vid, but FWIW here's what it did when I got it back from Intense -



I wish I'd filmed it on the car, but it's probably because I didn't see any problems.  Or hear any problems.  I've developed a habit of listening for engine noises, and this SC snout/pulley problem only started recently.

It seems odd that the pulley would become more bent over time, is it possible?  I was thinking cheapo Chinese bearings, or the build wasn't done right.  Honestly i'd rather it was the pulley, although I'd kick myself for not having the modular put on while the snout was with Intense.  Swapping the pulley is better than sending the snout back to Intense for another less-than-1000 mile rebuild.

Looking at the on-the-car vid, obviously the pulley is bent, the axle is straight and true.

Maybe ZZP has a better puller than Intense?

albertj wrote:

Looking at the on-the-car vid, obviously the pulley is bent, the axle is straight and true.  

It does look that way, doesn't it?

I can't believe I'm only now discovering this. How many times have I went around the engine listening to it in the last year? Then a few days ago, I pull the car out of the garage, walk twenty feet away, hear a chirping sound and go straight to the SC pulley? It makes no sense.

O.K., so it looks like I'm out $120 for ZZP's pulley puller, and $100 for the modular pulley system, just to get back to where I should have been if the Intense guy hadn't bent my pulley.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Supercharger-Pulley-Puller-Install-Tool-GTP-GS-SSEi-M90-Use-Return-Rental/112433724414

The 65 is a deposit, it's returned when you return the puller. The rental charge is more like 30.-, it is buried in the shipping/handling charge.

albertj wrote:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Supercharger-Pulley-Puller-Install-Tool-GTP-GS-SSEi-M90-Use-Return-Rental/112433724414

The 65 is a deposit, it's returned when you return the puller.  The rental charge is more like 30.-, it is buried in the shipping/handling charge.  

Thanks, that will help!

@5:30 the guy says he is lubricating the shaft with engine oil, what do you think?



No loctite on the MPS bolts?

Proof that the modular pulley ran straight and true when installed (got it done last night).

The pulley swap was rather uneventful, there was still anti-seize on the shaft from W-body Store's bearing replacement. It seems like that could cause the pulley to spin on the shaft under enough boost, but it must not.

The bad news is that I've still got my squeek. It sounds like something is going to let go soon.