DIY Auxiliary tool

If you can't do it the way you should ...

Then it should be as it is possible. Nowadays affordable special tools are everywhere. China and a few ex-bloc countries cannot be appreciated enough from that angle. No matter how low wages there are. But sometimes you are left with a problem. And then it's time for the DIY approach. Or, as Olie B. Bommel always told Tom Poes: "Come up with a plan, young friend!"

An Italian example

In the example case something typically Italian is playing or something that I just don't understand: The V-belt of an old Moto Guzzi V7 runs between a shared pulley on the crankshaft and the pulley of the dynamo that lives on top of the block. The old V string had more wrinkles than the legendary 'ass of Sinterklaas'. The case seemed simple: Loosen three bolts, remove the 'front' half of the crankshaft pulley. Hop! The old V string could be removed in no time.

Ordering a new V string was no problem. But the hassle started when the V-belt had to be mounted.

At Moto Guzzi, great spirits had thought that the V-belt tension should be regulated by shims between the pulley halves. 'More rings' ensure that the pulley halves are further apart. That the V string is therefore 'deeper' between the halves. After all, the new V string was a bit shorter. So there had to be more shims between the pulley halves. And there were none. Asking around with Real Experts (who are at the Moto Guzzi Club, and I have the pleasure of seeing Jan Keijzer regularly 'in the wild') learned that:

1. Serious workers on the old 'walking frame' Guzzies mounted the rings they didn't need (removed after stretching / wear of the V-belt) on the outside of the pulley for 'later'.
2. These filling discs were no longer available.

Some more bell work resulted in exchanging a set of shims for a pair of Guzzi leg shields, having a friend spin a pair of those rings and the funny information afterwards that the shims were the same as on VW Beetles, were amply available and almost cost free . Problem solved. Yet?

How do you mount that as a DIY victim?

The new V belt hung neatly down. But the lower arch was not yet 'low' enough to be caught between the oblique flanks of the pulley. Was he perhaps too short? Too stiff in the cold in my unheated garage? Jan Keijzer had said that he would make things right by turning the three bolts more and more so that the V-belt in his groove would be 'massaged up'. That seemed like a lot of hassle. I decided to try to make life a little easier.

With three considerably longer M6 bolts plus wing nuts as auxiliary tools, the DIY approach could be carried out much more smoothly and the procedure proposed by Jan. If things were in the right place, the mounting bolts, the auxiliary tools, could be replaced one by one by the original bolts. Good idea right?

It just doesn't work so far. Possibly the new V string that I sold is just a bit too short. Or my fingers got too cold.

But I was quite happy with my DIY auxiliary tool. And it should work. However? Experiment further this weekend.