Tapping sound upon acceleration is not a good thing to begin with. Upon
loosing the alternator/water pump belt bad things can happen really fast.
Since the coolant is no longer flowing the heads and cylinder areas will
heat up real fast. Since the coolant is not flowing the temperature gauge
will not see this until you have enough heat for it to get to the sensor and
at this point coolant will now be venting out the pressure relief. You are
making steam. The oil cooler is also out of commission. So the alternator
and warning light has to be functional.

The alternator warning light is also required to get the alternator
"started". Bad brushes or other defect in the alternator can prevent the
light from working. The light circuit is also used to operated the fridge
relay in stock campers. This adds some confusion.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Jack Reynaert
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2010 5:48 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: 2.1L engine failure?

Not sure what happened, but as we were following our friends 90 Westy
"automatic" on the highway, their motor just stopped as they were traveling
at 70MPH.

About 60k miles on the engine.

Good thing we were behind them in our Westy, as we were able to transfer
their stuff as they had it towed to a foreign car mechanic we found on
Autohaus (only 6 miles from their breakdown), had a nice dinner in Grand
Ledge MI, and drove them home to Detroit.

No warning lights, no overheat, full battery power... when we pulled the
motor cover, both fan belts were off the motor and the starter wouldn't turn
the motor.

Nothing leaking from below.

There was a tapping sound upon acceleration, but that went away, and didn't
make the sound when in Park with engine rev.

Sounds like a catastrophic failure eh?

If the motor has failed, we will likely go with the Bostig conversion.

Any ideas what might have happened, based on the clues above?!?

Thanks!

Jack R.

84 Westy

On behalf of our Friends

Chris & Bob

90 Westy