DoubleMint: A Ranger Story

DoubleMint scared the shiz out of the kids and I today. I feel pretty lucky that no one got hurt. The kids and I were cruising down Stratford at about 45-50 mph when suddenly the motor died and the rear wheels locked up. I tried to hold it straight but couldn’t and we did a 180 across a couple lanes, ending up in the middle turn lane facing the opposite direction. All that was going through my mind at the time was “please don’t flip, please don’t flip, please don’t flip..”. Luckily it didn’t. I got out and took a quick look around and didn’t see anything funny with the drivetrain or steering. Then hopped back in and fired it back up easily and the rear tires seemed free. Limped over to the side of the road and coolant steam started coming through the vents. Popped the hood and saw that the idler pulley had come off the front of the engine and was wedged against the alternator pulley.

Long story shorter, I got a new idler put on to get home. In the process of replacing it, I noticed the tensioner is also about to let loose and the belt needs replacement. My JB weld plug blew on the radiator, so looks like it’s time to get the whole rad replaced as well.

I might not make it to the Veterans’ ride this coming weekend.
 
One more thing so I don’t forget to replace it - the fan hub is cracked all the way through in a couple of places.

The idler and the alt getting a little too friendly:

F10B1DAB-7B6E-4986-88F7-62695176F8F5.jpeg
 
Andy J. said:
DoubleMint scared the shiz out of the kids and I today. I feel pretty lucky that no one got hurt. The kids and I were cruising down Stratford at about 45-50 mph when suddenly the motor died and the rear wheels locked up. I tried to hold it straight but couldn’t and we did a 180 across a couple lanes, ending up in the middle turn lane facing the opposite direction. All that was going through my mind at the time was “please don’t flip, please don’t flip, please don’t flip..”. Luckily it didn’t. I got out and took a quick look around and didn’t see anything funny with the drivetrain or steering. Then hopped back in and fired it back up easily and the rear tires seemed free. Limped over to the side of the road and coolant steam started coming through the vents. Popped the hood and saw that the idler pulley had come off the front of the engine and was wedged against the alternator pulley.

Long story shorter, I got a new idler put on to get home. In the process of replacing it, I noticed the tensioner is also about to let loose and the belt needs replacement. My JB weld plug blew on the radiator, so looks like it’s time to get the whole rad replaced as well.

I might not make it to the Veterans’ ride this coming weekend.
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I have an aluminum radiator for my 99 I'll hook you up with. Won't fit my tubed frame rails.
PM if you're interested
 
So is this straight drive and the wheels locked up? Trying to figure out the relationship to motor stops spinning and the wheels break loose. Glad you and yours are ok.
 
I don't remember ever replacing the idler pulley or tensioner or AC compressor. Alt - yes. Steering pump - yes (i think it may be after market now?)
 
Jody Treadway said:
I have an aluminum radiator for my 99 I'll hook you up with. Won't fit my tubed frame rails.
PM if you're interested
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Thanks for the offer. I'd take you up on it if I didn't already have a replacement in hand.

WARRIORWELDING said:
So is this straight drive and the wheels locked up? Trying to figure out the relationship to motor stops spinning and the wheels break loose. Glad you and yours are ok.
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I made some assumptions and came to this conclusion, but I'm not sure I got it all figured out. I was on a straight section of road just cruising along when suddenly the rear tires locked up. The rear end started to come around, so I tried to counter steer and had no power steering. My mind jumped to 2 conclusions: 1. Something in the drive train broke and 2. The motor died (no power steering).

After I pulled my shorts from my ass crack, I found that the idler pulley was dislodged. It's possible that the motor was still running and the belt just wasn't driving the accessories. This idea is supported by the fact that the engine was obviously overheating (caused by water pump not spinning due to loss of belt tension) as shown by the coolant steam coming through the vents. This led me to believe that I had probably been without power steering/water pump for some unknown amount of time prior to the rear tires locking up. I never heard anything that sounded like catastrophic failure from the engine bay, but then again, 37's + 40 series flowmaster + radio + chatty kids isn't exactly a quiet environment.

I also found nothing in the drive train that appeared out of the ordinary. So how would the rear tires have locked up so suddenly? I haven't quite been able connect the dots between the idler pulley failure and the drive train lockup, but there was no other damage that I can see.

ETA: In retrospect, if I had disengaged the clutch immediately after the tires locked up maybe I could have kept it from spinning. Of course the event unfolded in fractions of seconds, so I'm not beating myself up too much over this point. Just maybe if something similar was ever to happen again, this thought would pop back in my head and it might save a life.
 
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Andy J. said:
if I had disengaged the clutch immediately after the tires locked up maybe I could have kept it from sliding
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I'd like to think I'd have the state of mind to push the clutch in immediately, but I'd likely just shit myself and stick my arm out the window to catch myself as it rolled over :shaking:
 
adamk said:
Holy smokes! Glad no one was hurt.

From the information given, it sounds like the motor locked up from overheating? Being a manual and the clutch engaged, the motor is directly driving the rear wheels through the trans and tcase. Once the motor stopped spinning, so did everything else.

Total speculation with that statement though
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I think if overheating was the cause of the motor locking up, the motor would have been fubbar'd. As it was, I just let it cool and put a new pulley on it and drove home like nothing ever happened. :confused:
 
DoubleMint has been mostly left alone out in the cold while I've been wrapping up some house projects. We got that one fall day in the middle of winter this week (thanks NC), so I took advantage of it and got the new radiator put in along with a new tensioner and belt. The stock length 4.0 belt is just a tad short with the power steering mods, so I ordered another one that is 1" longer from Rock Auto (thanks for the NC4x4 discount :burnout:). Application was for a 2009-2015 Miata or a 2011 Porsche 911.

Victoria was a big help getting the belt on.

rad.jpg
 
CasterTroy said:
Will you make the flats saturday?
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Highly unlikely. I'm pretty well overbooked for the next month at least and DoubleMint needs a repair or two before we go out again. Brake lights aren't working for some reason (probably the switch). What I really should do is go drop it off for @WARRIORWELDING to build me a winch bumper since I'm not going to be going on any rides for the next month or two. I'm getting tired of tripping over this winch that sitting on the floor in my garage. :rolleyes:
 
Andy J. said:
Highly unlikely. I'm pretty well overbooked for the next month at least and DoubleMint needs a repair or two before we go out again. Brake lights aren't working for some reason (probably the switch). What I really should do is go drop it off for @WARRIORWELDING to build me a winch bumper since I'm not going to be going on any rides for the next month or two. I'm getting tired of tripping over this winch that sitting on the floor in my garage. :rolleyes:
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I can get behind that notion....I made some serious job changes. I'll be contacting you.
 
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