oh man ..I really do not like alternators and pulleys with no key.
On some ..it's just a smooth shaft and a pulley that is smooth inside ..
'usually' you impact the nut on and it all stays together.
Though once in a while that doesn't work ..if the pulley slips on the
shaft a lot it ruins the shaft.

key-for-me usually.
scott

On 5/22/2012 8:09 AM, pickle vanagon wrote:
> 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!
>>>
>>