can anyone tell me what happens?

[Skifu]

Hello board members,

I know I dont have many posts here,but Ive been pulling wrenches for over 25 years,and this is the first time Ive seen this happen,and it was on my truck!

Here goes,96 F150 ex-cab swb,300 6 2wd,Eod.Ok,my alternator went out,not to strange,ive changed a thousand,but my truck set not running for 1 month,I reinstalled the new alt.and went in to fire her up,I had a loud squealing noise,I shut her down,by the way,she fired right up after setting a month within seconds!so I took the tension off the belt,and tried turning all my pulleys by hand,every thing was good except the A.I.R(smog pump),so I had it out in a flash,and thought oh,its just stuck from setting,Gentlemen,this som bitch acted as if it was welded shut by the gremelins that attack our cars and trucks when were not looking,I took it in my shop,at home,and sprayed it with a little wd,took the dog for a walk,and thought that would do it,but no!so now it had my attention,I easily tightened it into my vise,even though it says right on it not to do so,I used shop rags to buffer it,anyway,it wouldnt move,so I took off the pully,and heated it a little with the hot wrench,I just warmed it up,not nucking it,and still nothing,I got a wrench that would fit the bolt pattern,and got down on it,all 245 lbs of me,and it turned,but its frozen,no 2 ways about it,and it was working fine,never made a noise when the truck was shut down to order the alt.(I live in Panama,canal zone)so,we know what happened,but could someone tell me why????

[theskytoucher]

I know the same thing happened to my brothers 89 f-150 300ci the smog pump seized broke the belt water pump stopped turning engine over heated cracked the head!!! Royal pain in the butt!!! So your not alone!!!

[fomocoguy]

You went and pissed it off for lettin' it set for a month!

[Jake11]

Take the end plate on the back off. You can knock the carbon blades out. See if it turns. We heard they do this all the time
on 70's&80's with air pumps. The rebuilders do a really lousy job on them.

[Skifu]

Well,Thanks for all the feedback,I ordered a new one online from AutoZone,since its an ordered part,and I cant turn in the core,it came to $88.58 with shipping,but for now Im gonna go ahead and try to knock the guts out of it,and try to put it back together,and see what happens,the reason I shyed away from doing this already is of where I live,if this sucker goes out on me out here,I could have a problem,since I cant just run down to Auto zone or wherever and get a new one,Thanks again,does any one have a scientific explanation why this would happen???

[Hawkrod]

I can tell you what happened. First, clamping it ligtly in a vice will destroy it even if it wasn't already. Leaning on one under the hood can actually destroy one. Knocking out the guts will not loosen one up because the vanes never lockup (they are inert and do not corrode). The only thing that normally goes wrong is moisture. 99.8% of smog pumps that lock up do so from sitting with humidity in them. Bearings almost never fail, shafts don't break or get bent but a few drops of water and that thing just became a turd. This is due to the very reason they say to not clamp them. The way smog pumps are made is a series of vanes mounted to a offset shaft in a rotating drum. There is a cavity in the housing that starts big and gets progressively smaller until it is eliminated by the casting. This is the point at which air is expelled and the cycle begins again. This point at which the casting nearly touches the drum is where teh problem occurs. The tolerance between the steel drum and the aluminum housing is smaller than your crankshaft bearing tolerances in many pumps. If you have been around cars for any time you know about electrolysis and how disimilar metals cause corrossion whenexposed to moisture. I am sure many members have seen corroded intake manifolds where the water ports meet the heads. This is the corrosion that occurs in a smog pump and literally welds that 3/8 or so wide strip of aluminum to the steel drum. This is actually extremely common and results in almost all smog pump failures that we saw. Hawkrod (been there done that, and yes, I hated rebuilding smog pumps!)

[Ranchero50]

Ditto that...

Also note that if the blades fly apart they'll lock up too. Mine is gutted and I took a dremel to the 'gap'.

Jamie

[Skifu]

Ok,I took it apart,it is under my alternator on my engine,so no chance of leaning on it on this application,and it was froze before I clamped it into the vise,and I did so on one of the bosses that a bolt goes through,so it wouldnt tweak the structure,just as youve said,You know I live In panama,the humidity is so thick here,if you walk outside from an air-conditioned car,or room,water will run down your glasses,im not saying your glasses will fog up,drops of water will actually run down the lenses!!,its crazy,when I opened up the air pump housing,there were drops of condensate that had formed on the inside of the housing,causing corrosion,Im surprised it didnt happen sooner,giving the super high humidity were adept to here,but it NEVER gets cold here never!!,one reason I love it here,shorts every day! and all the women dress skimpy,cause of the heat!!!get my drift? unless its a women required to dress professional for her job,or at night dressed up to go out,its a regular ***** on parade here,I love it!! what? did I get side tracked? back to Fords,I took out the internal linkage and cleaned it real well,greased the barrell,and buttoned it back up,just to get me going,untill the new one gets here,and Im running again,no sweat,Im very familiar with dissimilar metal,corrosion and such,as Ive been a metalworker in the army for years,(I retired in2004)and have always done mechanic work growing up on a farm,and riding motorcycles all my life,as well as in the military,and working at my uncles garage,I ride a big honda XR 600,and a 250,got the kids a XR100,on the 250 they put the swing arm bolt through the engine case,and the swing arm,both are made out of alloy,the bolt is steel,get the picture? if not coated with antisieze,it will freeze up,and Ive heard horror stories of people breaking cases,swingarms and so on trying to get them out,mine is coated with antisieze,I did it when the bikes were brand new,and about once a year,when I bring them in for rings,and such,Yall be good,well talk later,,SKIFU,in Panama!!!!