Hi, logged back in and ready to finish my project. My mk1 Orion has been stood a while (9 months). I fired her up today and all looking good, however, heard a grinding/rubber screeching noise from near timing pulley. I knew it's not from top end as I rebuilt this last year and was running perfect. I looked further and noticed water pump pulley seems loose, as in I can move it around about 5mm. Could this be the root of grinding noises? Much appreciate any help as I spent a fortune re building head and carb last year and don't want to ruin these. Cheers

 

Seized up alternartor bearing? remove the alternator belt and start it up again, see if the noise is still there

 

I'll give it a go, just concerned about movement in water pump pulley. Cheers

 

The water pump should have zero movement, it will be a rumbling sound when the pump goes, the hot water washes out the grease in the bearings eventually just going bang in a big way, so from your description I would say it's the pump, you'll soon tell by taking belt off and spinning, the noise from alternators tends to change with load so putting everything on will alter the noise if a bearing in the alt it will start singing, sound squite good actually!!
tabetha

 

Tabetha
Thanks for the info, have tried alternator on full load and no change to the sound. Def water pump. Many thanks, keep an eye out fir me, will be in this alot over next few weeks

Cheers

 

At least it's a nice easy one to do, and cheap too.
tabetha