I like the idea of no key.  At least then failure doesn't lead to
destruction of a pulley.  Can the key be deleted from a new alternator?
(I'm assuming there's no such thing as pulley's without a notch?)

On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 6:58 AM, Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@hotmail.com>wrote:

> From the factory the two piece pulleys do not use the key. This creates a
> self-tightening effect should the pulley start to slip. This failure was
> most likely the result of the pulley not being properly torqued.
>
>  Dennis
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> pickle vanagon
> Sent: Monday, May 21, 2012 6:14 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Photos of broken alternator pulley
>
> Here are the promised photos.
> http://wesandmaria.com/images/pulleys.jpg
>
> http://wesandmaria.com/images/shaft.jpg
>
> The pulley had not turned appreciably past the notch, just a tad as part of
> the failure but was then stuck in position.  The sharp edge where it split
> was cutting up belts.
>
> It looks to me that the notch on the shaft may actually have been the
> initial failure point, since both pully halves were chewed up by the notch.
> (Notice the notch on the good half rounded out a bit).  Both notches were
> good when installed on the shaft the previous day.  It looks to me like
> that
> shaft notch pivoted into the shaft on one end allow the pulleys to be
> pulled
> up over it.
>
> Thoughts?
> Wes
>
>
> On Sun, May 20, 2012 at 7:03 PM, pickle vanagon
> <greenvanagon@gmail.com>wrote:
>
> > Just wanted to let everyone know what happened.
> >
> > We were in Pittsburgh last week where I was borrowing space in my
> parents'
> > garage to swap our engine for a rebuilt 2.1 from Gary Leblanc.  (I'll
> > post details on that job later.)
> >
> > After some initial miles around Pittsburgh, we were on a break-in
> > style drive back to New York on small roads when our alternator pulley
> > self-destructed.  One of the halves split and separated.  I promise to
> > post photos.  Anyways, this must have torn up the belt in short order.
> >
> > I have discovered an extra benefit of having an auxiliary battery
> > setup in a westy.  Normally I think the alternator light might be easy
> > to miss for a minute or two which could result in overheating quite
> quickly I imagine.
> > In our case, I heard the *whack* of the stancor relay shutting off,
> > looked at the dash and saw the alternator light on, and knew
> > immediately we had a problem.  Shut off the engine right away, pulled
> > over and found the chewed up belt and destroyed pulley.
> >
> > After I sent the email to the list, Ryan in Johnstown really came
> > through for me and took *his* alternator out of his vanagon to lend to
> > us (a relative of mine in the area picked it up for us), which got us
> > back on track.  Made it to Granny Grose's late, but it was still fun
> > to see all the busses and vanagons.  Today we finished the drive back
> > to NYC.  I'll be sending Ryan his alternator back, and I have a spare
> > in Pittsburgh that will be sent to me.
> >
> > All in all, thanks to the kindness of strangers, things turned out
> > quite well!
> >
>
>