Upgraded Alternator Decoupler Pulley - Recommended by Litens

lars0247 · **Joined:** Sat Oct 12, 2013 12:09 am **Posts:** 98

My alternator pulley has failed twice in 6 months (today was the 2nd time). I just installed an upgraded pulley from Litens (PN 920834 available from Advanced Auto at $78) that is internally greased. It works great so far, but of course, I just put it in. I contacted Litens a while back when the original type failed the first time, below is the email I received from their engineer Allen Steadman
----------------
I did find an updated pulley that I believe would work for you. It is the 920834. The pulley is 2.5mm smaller diameter, so that is good and possibly bad. Good that you get the alternator spinning faster at idle and that will give you more alternator output at idle. The only drawback is you will need to check to see if the belt fits properly. I believe that it will. Worst case if your belt has stretched a bit over time, you may need to get a slightly shorter belt, but I'll be honest I really don't think it will be needed.

The 920834 OAD is a grease filled OAD and has a different style cap. This OAD also has internal upgrades that provide for protection for the lugging and rough running of the engine (your driving style). I would still try to change your driving style a bit, these OADs (and your entire engine for that matter) can only take so much sub idle vibration abuse.

The 920834 is available at advance auto for $78 (funny the 920720 is $120!!!) . I checked the website yesterday for you. They actually have a sale right now of 15% off and a $25 gift card for any purchase online above $50. I believe you would qualify for that. See Advance link below.

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/webapp ... pling-(oad)-pulley--original-equipment-quality-litens_10150692-p?isAllVehicle=false&showTitle=&vehicleIdFromReq=303646&vehicleIdSearch=303646

Also, have a look at these 3 videos that I made on your very CRD application. They are on youtube. The CRD application was chosen as it has a very easy alternator to work on and video!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maK7UkL13YY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOtW0Xx79cQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzpzj9kuw6k

Hope this helps, If everything works well for you, then you can tell all your CRD Jeep buddies about the upgrade. Keep me posted on how it goes for you. Maybe send me a short video clip of the engine starting up and the engine running with the new pulley on the alt. That would be cool for me to see.

Al Steadman.

thermorex · **Posted:** Fri Apr 18, 2014 11:29 pm

Thanks for posting it, and please keep us updated on how it goes. It seems a good upgrade so far.

Meg · **Joined:** Wed Jul 09, 2014 9:31 pm **Posts:** 1

Any news on your new decoupler pulley? How did you know the original pulley failed?

Thanks!

flash7210 · **Posted:** Thu Jul 10, 2014 7:50 am

Which do you think is better?
A new pulley for $78
Or a reman alternator with pulley for $145

thermorex · **Posted:** Thu Jul 10, 2014 8:56 am

flash7210 wrote:

Which do you think is better?
A new pulley for $78
Or a reman alternator with pulley for $145

I had an advance auto reman "tough one" - go figure, lol, that failed, the lights were flickering, and I ended up returning it to Autozone as a core for their brand, due to it being a pos and hoping Autozone one it's better. Right now, I'm running the stock alternator with an oem new pulley with no problems. Autozone one is on the shelvf as spare. I've heard advance auto remans caused lots of issues for crd. So I guess it all depends on luck, and how good the alternator was rebuilt.

MRausch82 · **Posted:** Thu Jul 10, 2014 6:37 pm

flash7210 wrote:

Which do you think is better?
A new pulley for $78
Or a reman alternator with pulley for $145

A new pulley. The factory Denso alternators are good units. They are known to last 350-400K on Japanese cars. The clutch is the typical failure point on the CRD's as well as other makes which have a Denso with a clutch. The aftermarket alternator options don't typically last that long. My :2cents:

lars0247 · **Joined:** Sat Oct 12, 2013 12:09 am **Posts:** 98

Meg wrote:

Any news on your new decoupler pulley? How did you know the original pulley failed?

Thanks!

Yes. It is working great. I would highly recommend it over the standard type decoupler pulley.

cevans · **Joined:** Wed Aug 24, 2005 12:48 pm **Posts:** 278

Great that it is cheaper than the OE too. I sent a note to Litens to see if we can buy them in bulk.

MRausch82 · **Posted:** Fri Jul 11, 2014 11:28 am

I put an OE one on my personal CRD, and 5K later it is fine. I think that they only last around 100K or so from what I have seen and heard from others.

lars0247 · **Joined:** Sat Oct 12, 2013 12:09 am **Posts:** 98

The Litens part number I list in the first part of this thread is not just an updated number. It was specifically recommended from Al Steadman of Litens as something that would not only fit and have the right decoupler characteristics, but also have greater longevity since it is a newer style grease filled type unit.

As far as I know, at the time I installed it, I was the only person running this specific decoupler on the 2.8L VM engine. Mr. Steadman took a day or so to get back to me after I called him and explained my issue of two of their decouplers failing, and he then looked into what in Litens current product line would work better than the older style decoupler that was used on these engines. The one he found I believe was being used by Toyota if I recall correctly.

The reason I believe I went through two of these original type units was the extreme cold in MN this winter. I regularly would start up the Jeep in -20F weather with no block heater, and it would run pretty rough at first, which is hard on the decoupler per Mr. Steadman, plus I was lugging the engine alot whilst using the Ram TCM, which I have since replaced with a GDE TCM tune.

At his request, I sent videos of my tensioner during operation with the new decoupler, and for all I know, Litens now may be recommending this decoupler for our Jeeps.

cevans · **Joined:** Wed Aug 24, 2005 12:48 pm **Posts:** 278

I've got them coming from Litens:

http://idparts.com/catalog/product_info ... ts_id=4488

VERY limited quantities are available and they won't make it here from overseas until mid-Sept. I usually don't list something on our site if it isn't in stock yet, but with such limited supply I wanted to give people the chance to reserve one if they wanted to.

cerich · **Posted:** Wed Jul 16, 2014 1:48 pm

and that ladies and gentleman is why ID Parts deserves our business. They support us.

crdblazr · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2014 4:52 pm

Thank you for the very informative post above. My tensioner and alternator failed less than 2 years ago, and I'm having a very similar issue again right now. I suspect it is the decoupler pulley on the reman alternator that was installed in March 2013.

lars0247 wrote:

This OAD also has internal upgrades that provide for protection for the lugging and rough running of the engine (your driving style). I would still try to change your driving style a bit, these OADs (and your entire engine for that matter) can only take so much sub idle vibration abuse.

What is meant by the driving style comment? I suspect I may be guilty of this as well, but I'm not sure exactly what it means.

dgeist · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2014 5:28 pm

crdblazr wrote:

What is meant by the driving style comment? I suspect I may be guilty of this as well, but I'm not sure exactly what it means.

Lots of jumping on and off the skinny pedal will cause the OAD to be "exercised" more (freewheeling in the one direction and the spring clutch in the other). Granted it's supposed to, but for something designed for 500k duty cycles (not a real number), having those cycles less frequently WILL make it last longer.

striperman36 · **Posted:** Mon Jul 28, 2014 2:01 pm

I've recently had both idlers fail that I put on 40K ago. the OAD seems fine, the belt and the tensioner both appear to be good, the belt was very tight when I put it on originally.

I am not sure if that is the root cause of the issue, the bearings on the idlers are definitely shot, and the metal is worn off of one of the idlers in certain areas.

I've ordered a new serp belt, idler and a new tensioner from id parts.hopefully, that will be the end of this saga.

striperman36 · **Posted:** Mon Jul 28, 2014 6:35 pm

Unreal, I left the office parking lot, heard chirping under the hood, and there it is, OAD causing the serp belt to act like a trampoline!!

Ordered the advanced autopart OAD, hopefully, I'll get it Wednesday, along with the new idparts.com stuff

crdblazr · **Posted:** Tue Jul 29, 2014 10:33 pm

After some detective work at the Litens webite (http://www.decouplerpulley.com), I was able to find the Mopar OEM part number for the upgraded Litens PN 920834. Luckily the part was in stock at the local Jeep dealer and my mechanic installed it on my alternator today. This fix has resolved the loud noise when turning on the AC and the horribly bouncing drive belt tensioner.

Here are the details I got from Litens, in case they are useful for anyone else.

OE Technology: Overrunning Alternator Decoupler Pulley
OE Supplier: Litens Automotive - Canada
OE OAD Numbers: Mopar: 4861506AB, 4861506AC, 4861506AD, 4861506AE, 4861506AG
Denso: 021040-1130, 021040-1170, 021040-1320, 021040-1441
Tendeco/Atech Number: 920834
Lester Number: 11063
Recommended Mileage To Replace OAD (Severe*/Normal): 60,000-100,000/100,000-120,000
Installation Time: Professional mechanics can install this replacement OAD in approximately 1 hour. During alternator pulley replacement, belts, tensioners, and routing pulleys should be inspected.
*Taxis, Rentals, Police Cars, Etc.

arasb · **Posted:** Sun Feb 08, 2015 11:55 pm

I recently replaced my decoupler pulley because I noticed my lights dimming and surging when I let off the accelerator and found dust under the pulley cap. I didn't check to see how the tensioner looked while running prior to replacing the alternator pulley, so I don't have any reference if this is what the tensioner should look like under normal idle conditions. I did notice that the serpentine belt was not bouncing and looked to be running smoothly prior to and after the pulley replacement. My lights no longer dim and surge.

Does this look right for the tensioner action with a new OAD pulley?

http://youtu.be/myVutyCOn2U

Thanks,
Aras

CATCRD · **Posted:** Wed Feb 11, 2015 8:48 pm

Yep. Looks perfect.

arasb · **Posted:** Sat Feb 14, 2015 10:46 pm

Awesome, thanks!

Upgraded Alternator Decoupler Pulley - Recommended by Litens

Who is online