belt dust from pulley

[gettinthere]

I get way too much belt dust from the alternator pulley. Went thru all the usual possibilities. Somewhere aling the way it was suggested to take emory cloth to the main crank pulley...that worked! There is a bit of pitting on the 30 year old steel. The problem is that the pitting comes back all too soon.

Soooo, I'm looking for a longer term solution. One idea I have is to dab some rust reformer on the pitting after sanding down. Not sure if that would work and not sure if it would be bad for the belt.

Any other ideas on how to stop the pitting?

 

[walmsleyc]

I had the same problem, and, very carefully, while the engine was running, polished all the pitted/rusted pulleys as they spun.
That made a very big difference. I did notice that most of the rust and roughness was from where the belt was touching the pulley over the winter. Since then, I remove the belts each winter, and I get much less rust, and then less dust in the summer.
Chris

 

[gettinthere]

No way can I safely get my hand on the pully while running! Tough to get my hand on it while stopped, Straining to reach thru belts, between alt and compressor. NOPE!!

Winter? Whats that?

 

[Stu Jackson]

What engine?

 

[Tim M]

From an excellent marine diesel mechanic: First sand the rust and smooth the pulleys as much as possible. Then use some kind of phosphoric acid product to kill the rust (ex. Rust Mort , available from auto-body shop suppliers). Then paint with a rust reformer paint like POR-15. It's lasted a couple hundred hours so far and almost totally eliminated the dusting. Good luck.
Tim

 

[Benny17441]

Pitting is a form of localized galvanic corrosion and not much can be reasonably done to stop it once it develops. The incidence in older metal parts just substantiates what you have observed "comes back all too soon". One solution would be to replace the 30 year old pulley with a new one and to keep it clean and polished. If it were me, I would say "what is a little dust?".

 

[njlarry]

Ge, very smart, stay away from spinning pulleys with attached belts.
If you have checked the alignment, cleaned the pulley, adjusted the belt tension, aren't over taxing the alternator. .....your likely next move would be to switch to a serpentine belt and pulley system as Maine Sail details. Hopefully others will have an idea or two to try first.

 

[Gunni]

I have found that older belts dust more. I now change them every other year, or when the belt drops below the lip of the alternator pully.