I know there is a laundry list of things to check - the way this happened is a little unique so I thought I would check and see if anyone knows what it might be.

I was driving on the freeway and heard a thwack sound in front and then a repeated noise. The truck still ran - battery indicator came on right away - I knew it was at a minimum the alternator belt. Then as I'm turning off the freeway I realize I've lost power steering. I opened the hood and all three accessory belts had been ripped off. The alternator belt wrapped around between the crank pulley and the block.

The flat bed tow truck came and I started the truck to drive it up onto the bed, as I'm driving up the truck just had very little power and then stalled.

I replaced the belts yesterday, went to start it and it just turns endlessly - I don't get anything. This was at the end of the day so I had no time to check spark fuel etc.

My question is based on loosing all three belts, loosing power while driving onto the truck - is this a timing belt? It's been many moons since it was changed. My only other thought on the stalling was that the belt that wrapped behind the crank pulley just sinched up and stalled the engine - similar to when an a/c compressor freezes and either destroys your belt or stalls the engine depending on your rpm.

Thanks guys and sorry for the novella gigantica

 

Model, year and motor will be helpful.

:wabbit2:

 

93 4runner 3.0 5spd

 

Stopped by home at lunch - update - dist rotor is spinning... so I guess that answers my question

 

Losing all three at once is pretty odd. Did they all break or just run off?

 

Alternator for sure broke, A/C was gone but that one can fall off because it isn't around the fan, and the PS belt was just off flopping around

 

Have someone crank while you watch the pulleys for any strange motions.

 

I'm not sure what this means (the distributor rotor is supposed to spin when the motor is running). Do you mean you can turn the rotor with the engine off? That is bad.

 

No - just that it spins when I crank it so the timing belt must still be doing it's job