Keeping belts dry.

Morning all, another rainy day is upon us and another day of power steering lock-ups for me! Trouble I'm having is whenever I splash through a decent sized puddle the power steering ceases to exist and the steering goes rock hard. I've got a 200 disco conversion so I don't have a fan cowl and don't intend on bodging one to fit. Does anyone else have the same issue? Have any of you smart folk got a solution? The belts are correctly tensioned and not that old, pulleys have never been changed!
Cheers!

So the belt gets wet and slips on the pulley? Is the pump seizing up?

Mine was slipping and squeeling like a pig on full lock, and whenever I got very wet. Swapped em for new ones yesterday and no issues, drove in torrential rain this morn.

My old ones where pretty perished, and about 4 years old. (Stood for 3 of em!)

Have you checked your pulleys for wear? Otherwise it could be a power steering issue. Woulda thought it was belt though from your description.

Forgot to say, I have exact same set up.
200 tdi conversion, no cowl, and no viscous fan.

as above, check pulley is ok and get a new good brand belt, not poundland special

Re-tightened the belts today and had no problems! I think my problem may lie with the locking nuts being worn and therefore being rattled loose and the belts lose tension.
Thanks for your input guys.

I had a similar issue with my TD5, prior to the issue starting it was fitted with new auxiliary drive belt from my local motor factors cost £20.00 because the original belt was starting to crack an split. Changed as a precaution.
A little time after having fitted the new belt it started to squeal on full lock and subsequently when getting wet. I started by looking at the auto tensioner as the culprit (new belt fitted it could not be that could it? it's new).
Tensioner stripped cleaned lubricated and re fitted still the same.
I then made a comparison the new belt with the old one I removed (retained for emergency use) the new one was much stiffer it did not flex anything like the old one.
I refitted the new belt and proceeded to turn the engine over slowly and carefully looking at the belt whilst it was traveling round the smallest pulley and sure enough it did not flex and remain in full contact with the pulley hence the slipping.
Went to my local Land Rover parts department purchased one from them at £24.00 problem solved.
Like I have said previously I now only purchase genuine LR parts in most cases. At £20.00 the none genuine part was not a big saving but it did turn out to be a £20.00 waste of money and time.

I've got Dayco belts on, which I believe are fairly good. If a new set of Nylocs don't stop the problem in the future then I think I'll try some LR belts!

Just a point,do not hold any power steering on full lock continualy

bluedog333 said:

Re-tightened the belts today and had no problems! I think my problem may lie with the locking nuts being worn and therefore being rattled loose and the belts lose tension.
Thanks for your input guys.

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Glad to hear! Mine where very tight - had to lever the alternator round to get enough slack to get the belt off lol.