New supercharger style?

[julio]

Okay last week we had a 03 Cobra come in for a transmission concern, anyway my buddy noticed that the car had smaller pulley
on the supercharger, anyway they take a picture:mj: and a few days later the same car comes back with a noise in the blower. To make a long story short, the blower is now junk (it locks up when you turn it by hand) they order a new supercharger assembly (customer pay) and take the old one off and the intercooler is also damaged. Anyway the "new" blower pulley does not have the bolt in the shaft. The shaft is solid with the pulley pressed on. I dont think most of the pullers I have sen will work on this style.....

 

[BBriBro]

How can changing the pulley damage the intercooler?

 

[03DOHC]

The shaft we have now requires the pulley to be pressed on, but it has a bolt on the end. That's the only difference?

 

[03SoCalCobra]

That sounds like a 1 minute idea that wasn't well thought out. All they're doing is forcing a change in the methodology for a pulley swap.

Now both Ford AND the owner are at a disadvantage. Owner has to go through more hassle swapping the snout and Ford lost it's ability to tell if the unit was tampered with.

 

[julio]

Originally posted by BBriBro
How can changing the pulley damage the intercooler?

When you try to throw supercharger pieces through it. In my opinion Im not convinced the pulley swap done this, either damage while installing the pulley or over revving it. In the owners defense, this could have just been a defect in the blower that would have happened with or with out the swap as well. I really hate it for him, this car has less than 3,000 miles on it and his bill will be around 3 large. I hope it hasn't damaged the engine which he wont know until he puts it back together.

and I agree with you 03socalcobra....

 

[BBriBro]

jeesh, how small of a pulley was it? I know many are overspinning the blower, causing a decrease in efficiency, but not necessarily catastrophic failure, this is news to me.

 

[julio]

Its hard to tell in the pic they took, they used a ruler beside of the pulley. If the guy would of had it towed to another dealer with stock pulley on, it might have got covered under warranty, this car does even have a CAI or exhaust upgrades. Man, this has to suck...

I know 3 others who have smaller pulleys on their cars and no problems, I think Im going to wait as long I can:cryying:

 

[Sonic03]

screw "3 large" on a stock blower and tell him to get the Kenne Bell, why waste the time with the stock blower again.IMHO

 

[JKD COBRA]

thats true, might as well get the KB. But to answer the question yes, if Ford thinks you changed the pulley they can send you a blower with no bolt on the snout.

 

[lethal]

I don't want to pass too much doubt, but can this be for real? I'd love to see the pics of this monster.

Ouch. What a slap on the wrist -- not only does he have to pay for the new supercharger, but now it has been limited... how sad.

 

[94SVT Coupe]

You can still at least get a Lightning snout. Then you could swap pullies on that.

 

[SoCalBlk03]

Originally posted by julio
The shaft is solid with the pulley pressed on. I dont think most of the pullers I have sen will work on this style.....

Color me confused. If there is no longer a bolt on the input shaft how is the pulley retained. From the description the design seems flawed, the pulley will eventually migrate off the input shaft. :shrug:

 

[jtfx6552]

I always wonderd why they had a bolt. If you ever pulled one of those press fit pullies, I don't think you'd think it would ever move.

It's no big deal really, now you just need to remove the snout for pulley changes. That's how mine was done. The IC water neck is a PIA though.

I'd definatly call KB before I spent money on a stock replacement Eaton. Soon there will be more and more slightly used but fully functional eatons take offs for sale ;-)

JT

 

[SoCalBlk03]

Originally posted by jtfx6552
I always wonderd why they had a bolt. If you ever pulled one of those press fit pullies, I don't think you'd think it would ever move.

JT

I'm not doubting you. But givin enough heatcycles anything will warp, distort etc. It just seems unlikely that Ford would actually use a part that dosen't have a safety feature such as a retaining bolt; givin todays litigation laiden atmosphere. A pic of the "new design" might clear things up. 'Till then I'll remain the skeptic on the design.

 

[haskett]

Originally posted by SoCalBlk03
I'm not doubting you. But givin enough heatcycles anything will warp, distort etc. It just seems unlikely that Ford would actually use a part that dosen't have a safety feature such as a retaining bolt; givin todays litigation laiden atmosphere. A pic of the "new design" might clear things up. 'Till then I'll remain the skeptic on the design.

I agree. So far we have heard only one report of a new design. Why would Ford go through the expense of having two designs by Eaton, their sub ? The owner of the pullied car has already voided his warranty, what does Ford have to gain by switching to a new design on the owner ? :shrug:

I'm skeptical until I see more evidence.

 

[Bosko]

I doubt its a new design. Its just a shaft with out the retaining bolt hole there. And their is a puller for them. When I changed to my lightning snout there was a bolt hole but no bolt.... So I installed a bolt. You can send the snout out if you want to Eaton and they will rebuild it with a new shaft. Its no big deal.

Julio- Do you think you can get the number off the sticker on the side of the superchager? Ford wont just throw it away. They will send it to be rebuilt. All Eaton superchager rebuilds are done at Magnesson Supercharegers In Ventura Ca. A fried of mine works there. If I can give him the Serial Number to it maybe he can tell me why it failed. It should be easy for him to track down because Im pretty sure they dont get too many 03 cobra supercharges being rebuilt at this time since they are so new.

 

[JKD COBRA]

Bosko has it right.

 

[Pyro]

I'm hoping it's an isolated incident. Being in the manufacturing business, I know there's always one unit that can fail and that's excluding how it was used. For all we know, the guy abused it or didn't install the pulley correctly. From my own experience, the force required for the pulley swap is nerve wrecking! When I was done, I gave the pulley numerous hand turns to see how it moved...mainly from curiosity. The motion was SILKY SMOOTH. Incidently, this made me wonder how belt slippage occurs since mine was so fluid and smooth that it almost seemed like it wasn't attached to anything. And yes, it WAS attached...believe me! Anywho, I'm keeping my fingers crossed and trusting that years of Lightening experience has paid off.

 

[BBriBro]

Originally posted by Pyro
Incidently, this made me wonder how belt slippage occurs since mine was so fluid and smooth that it almost seemed like it wasn't attached to anything.

Keep in mind it gets much much more difficult to turn at high RPM. I forget the number of horsepower on the Cobra, But on a top fuel dragster the blower takes 400 hp to turn, I read an article saying that all the power a Z06 has, it would use up just to spin the blower. Ever turn an alternator? They spin real easy by hand too, but then you get a squeeling belt and makes you wonder. Alternators get more difficult to spin when there is a high electrical load (they aren't doing anything when you turn them in your hand, you need to energize the field windings, and start producing electricity), The blower gets more difficult as the airflow increases.

 

[Pyro]

Very True BBriBro! I forgot about the laws of physics. It makes sense.

Thanks