Pulley question NEED HELP

FIMotorMX-3 · Post by **FIMotorMX-3** » August 19th, 2005, 7:02 pm

Ok, I've had a problem with acceration and my front idle belt. The car has been bogging bad under hard acceleration. I replaced my tension pulley and the belt keeps popping off. Then the Drive pulley basically ejected the grooved ring around the pulley out from underneath the bottom of my car. I'm assuming that might be the problem with my acceleration. the ridged ring is slipping around the pulley causing my crank to spin out of timing slightly, making my car fire wrong and run a little rich. I have been blowing quite a bit of black smoke under hard acceleration but my air/fuel gauge has been reading normal. So now I need to replace what I'm assuming is the underdrive pulley. Would the stock pulley from the K8 swap over to the KLZE engine without any problems or do I have to get one specific to the ZE or DE engine? If so, which unorthodox pulley should I look for? I would like to use the K8 for the time being if it will work due to financial reasons but if I have to, I'm not going to replace with a stock 2.5 pulley if i'm forced to go that route. It might be time to upgrade. Please give me some advice... I need to try and fix this as economically possible.

Slammed6 · Post by **Slammed6** » August 19th, 2005, 10:10 pm

All pulleyes are the same...whether its for a K8-DE, KL-DE, or KL-ZE...they are the same weight and size.

Its kinda hard for me to picture exactly whats going on, but i know there is a lil pin that keeps the crank and timing and everything even. but i wan unser the impression that if that falls out you timing and stuff would be so outta wack that the car would not run at all.

PATDIESEL · Post by **PATDIESEL** » August 20th, 2005, 12:37 am

The pullies are not the same. Mazda has different part numbers for the KL and K8 crank pullies. If they were the same then they wouldn't have different part numbers. However, I have used a K8 on a ZE and it seemed to work just fine. As for the pin in the crank pulley, it must be in there and it cannot fall out if the bolt and pulley are on the crank. So what I'm saying is that couldn't be what fell out. So what are you talking about? Your description is not informative enough to give a good answer. You need to find out what the name of the offending/broken part is so that we can help you accurately.

FIMotorMX-3 · Post by **FIMotorMX-3** » August 20th, 2005, 1:36 am

Sorry I wasn't descriptive enough. The pulley is called the drive pulley according to the diagram I have from the dealership. It is the outter pulley that runs along with the ac and alternator belts. Basically it is the outter portion of the pulleys in line with the crank at the bottom of the block behind the passenger front tire. The pulley is obviously in multiple pieces and the outter surface of these pulleys are ribbed so that the belts don't slip off. well the outter ring of that pulley actually shot out from underneath my car when i revved the engine. the pulley itself is still intact and connected to the crank. but the ring with the ribs won't stay on the pulley. I re-attached everything so that i could drive my car 8 miles to my house and have left it there. during that drive, the belt started to shred and the ribbed ring moved to the inner portion of the pulley almost against the block. When that ring is off of the pulley there seems to be a rubbery ring that I would guess keeps that ring in place but it feels as if it were somewhat dry rotted. I would like to try and swap my K8 pulley but the engine has been stored outside under a tarp and I am not sure what the elements have done to it. It may be rusted. I'm all the way in Savannah Georgia right now and my K8 is located in Jersey so until I can get my father out to inspect that engine tomorrow, I'm just trying to figure out if swapping that part is feasible, what could have possibly caused this to happen, and if I do have to go aftermarket, which UR pulley have people been using for the ZE's and maybe some ideas of where to find one at a reasonable price. NOPI is right down the road from me but they want 230.... Summit has them for 183 and Jegs is 199. I don't see any on Ebay at the moment so any other recommendations would be greatly appreciated if I have to go that route. Thanks guys and hopefully that description of the problem is a little more helpful.

Slammed6 · Post by **Slammed6** » August 20th, 2005, 1:40 am

would you happen to have any pics you could show us...i am still a lil confused...i got kinda a couple ideas of what it could be but a picture could explain everything.

PS. Underdrives could be had for about $75 shipped from MBX, and a couple people selling them on probetalk.com or MX6.com. And i have seen some OBX ones on ebay, but i have no experience with those OBX ones, but i have had 2 MBX ones and they are top quality.

FIMotorMX-3 · Post by **FIMotorMX-3** » August 20th, 2005, 11:34 am

Sorry, I don't have any pics of it on hand. I don't have a digital cam, and I wouldn't even waste the time of posting a poor quality pic from my camera phone. The picture I have from the dealership is in our online service manual. The exact location is B2-006. I'm looking at the 4th picture down showing the crankshaft pulley, a/c comp and alternator/generator pulley. The pulley I'm having problems with is the Crankshaft pulley and if you look at the second picture down from the top you see the proper alignment of the belts. On the crankshaft pulley, there are grooves like in that picture that are basically a metal outter ring on the pulley. Well, that ring won't stay on my pulley. I'm going to have my father check the condition of my K8 pulley for rust or anything else that could cause problem. I might have him send it to me. But I am going to check out the MBX pulleys. I did a search on ebay and only saw drive pulleys for 4 cyl mx's.. But I'll check out probetalk and mx6. I am guessing there is no way of fixing the one I have now and I'm kind of in a bind for time and cash. I'm supposed to drive up to Jersey next week and am in the middle of finals at college right now. I'm afraid if I have to have something shipped from anyplace other than NOPI I might not get it in time. If NOPI has what I need in either their Savannah or Atlanta store I could have it that day or next day the latest. I'm literally 10 minutes from the Savannah store. But 230 is a rediculous price to pay when I'm hearing anywhere from 78 dollars to 230. Sorry for having to look for a pic by searching the manual, but unfortunately there isn't a link that I can post for that page. And lack of a camera really makes it somewhat of a nuisance. Sorry about that.

PATDIESEL · Post by **PATDIESEL** » August 22nd, 2005, 12:38 am

He is talking about the crank pulley. I had that happen to my K8 just before the ZE swap. The rubber ring is a vibration controll and after 10 years it will get dry and let the alt belt part of the pulley slide off the rest of the pulley. You'll need to just replace it as a fix could be dangerous. Any underdrive pulley for a KL should work just fine, but I've only had experience with the Unorthodox versions. I'll be in Savanah racing at Roebling Road the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. If you need I may have one laying around that I'll sell you for 20 bucks. You'll have to meet me at the track and probably pay a 5 dollar entrance fee though since I'll be busy all weekend racing and couldn't meet you anywhere. Also for 5 bucks you get to watch 3 MX-3s and about 25 other cars race.There will be a 04' Viper, Z06 Vette, 2 Porsches, about 15 Honda's and a Miata. All the MX guys are MOCA members, Ccreech ZE, Jaydog5678 250 wheel HP BPT, and me ZE 180WHP. Should be a ton of fun. Let me know so that I look for it and bring it with me to the track.
Send me a PM or email just in case I forget to recheck this post.

FIMotorMX-3 · Post by **FIMotorMX-3** » August 22nd, 2005, 1:13 am

Damn, I would love to meet up for the race... I don't know if I'll be in Savannah for that weekend though. If I get the car running, I may be up in Jersey for a week and a half doing some work to make a little money b4 my classes start again on the 14th. If I don't have any work to go to up in Jersey, I'll be here working, and by that time I'll definately have the car running. My father is going to try and break the bolt loose on my K8, remove the stock pulley from that, and ship it down here for me. But he's unsure if he'll get the thing to break loose with the engine out of the car. There isn't really much to keep the crank from spinning. If he can't get it off the car tomorrow night, I'm going to call Nopi to see if they have any in stock, also Jegs. Summit can't ship til the 3rd of Sept, and I can't really wait that long. I may have to suck it up and spend 220 through Nopi. I have done a little business with them in the past with my old Civic and my other MX-3. I might be able to haggle the price with them since I've purchased from them quite a few times in the past. Also Kenzie on this forum has a used UR pulley for sale for 100 so I'm pretty sure I'll have the UR in by the end of the week. Two questions though. What size bolt is holding the Crank pulley in? My father is going to try and bring tools home with him tomorrow to attempt removing the pulley. Also, is that bolt a reverse thread or the normal lefty loosey righty tighty? That's the last thing he wants to do is accidentally tighten the crank a little more. I'll definately keep you posted on whether I'll be here over Labor Day. If I am, I might try to talk some guys from my club to try and come down for the weekend. We've got a 245 whp WRX and a 13 sec all motor Civic and a 430 whp Camaro sitting around just waiting to get beat on. lol. The camaro is definately not a road trip car tho. 12hr drive with straightpipes on a stoker isn't a fun time. But I really wanna see the mx's in person. I wish I still had my old 94 gs. only a k8 but atleast the exhaust, suspension and system were done. plus I had the erebuni MS front on it. Damn Savannah Floods. That one was green too.

lakersfan1 · Post by **lakersfan1** » August 22nd, 2005, 11:54 am

Every bolt I encountered in the car has been normal thread direction.

I believe the crank bolt is 22mm if memory serves.

Slammed6 · Post by **Slammed6** » August 22nd, 2005, 1:22 pm

if u use a standard socket, which i always use, its a 13/16".

FIMotorMX-3 · Post by **FIMotorMX-3** » August 22nd, 2005, 2:42 pm

Thanks guys, I told him last night I believed it was mostlikely going to be a 22mm but I wasn't positive. I'll tell him to bring both sizes home with him. Hell they don't weight that much. I'm sure he'd appreciate having both just in case.

I'm almost certain he shouldn't waste his time taking the thing off because UR underdrives keep looking more and more tempting. lol. God knows I don't wanna pull my powersteering and ac. But squeezing every little last bit of hp outta that engine is way too tempting. maybe with the UR, I might be able to enjoy ac a little while longer. lol. Those MBX pulleys look like they have sold out on the group buys in Probe and MX6, unless I'm just looking at the wrong thread. I checked out their website and they want 189 on their page. For that price, I could get the UR pulley. I'm gonna call around today and see what I come up with.

FIMotorMX-3 · Post by **FIMotorMX-3** » August 22nd, 2005, 3:50 pm

LOL, my lack of sleep has cause me to read those last threads as if you guys were disagreeing on the socket size. not that you were just mentioning the the standard equivalent to metric. Don't mind me, I've been up for 26 hours now doing finals.

PATDIESEL · Post by **PATDIESEL** » August 23rd, 2005, 3:06 am

It is a 22mm and loosens the same a regular. If he has an air ratchet it will come off pretty easliy. If not you can wedge a large screw driver of pry bar in the flywheel so long as you don't mind ruining the flyweel. If the flywheel is off then you will HAVE to have air.
Good luck with you final and maybe some other time you can come up and meet us. Maybe come out to the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta this Sept. if you like Le Mans racing. Fastest production cars in the world.

FIMotorMX-3 · Post by **FIMotorMX-3** » August 23rd, 2005, 3:24 am

LOL, I just had to check my voicemail on my phone. after 30 something hours without sleep I couldn't tell if I was dreaming about my engine or I had actually heard news about my car, but I guess my father called me at 10pm and said he got the pulley off the car.... DAMN!!! I really wanted to go with UR. but I can't really afford it right now anyway. but I was almost convinced I had dreamt the whole thing. I have no idea when I listened to the msg.. I swear I was asleep by 930 but anyway..... The pulley is being shipped later in the morning and will be here by thursday or friday. I have my final class at 930 on thursday so hopefully thursday night she'll be up and running again. I don't know how he got the thing loose because my k8 flywheel is on my ze and there is no flywheel on the k8. he wedged something somewhere to hold it still and was able to loosen it with a 24" breaker bar. I'm still not possitive if I'll be up in Jersey during labor day weekend. I'm a contractor so if I can't line up any work for my break up there, I'll be here in savannah working. I can just make a lot more money up in Jersey and would like to see my family and friends too. I'll keep you posted on whether or not I'll be here tho. If I don't go up there, I definately want to meet up. Is Roebling Rd. the 1/8 mile track out on I17? If it is, I've been there a few times but haven't run any of my cars. I just wasn't sure of the name of the track.

FIMotorMX-3 · Post by **FIMotorMX-3** » August 28th, 2005, 1:46 am

Hey Pat, I think I might be coming out to Roebling.. I'm supposed to be going to a bbq with my girl sometime that weekend out near statesboro so I'll be in the vicinity... She's into cars aswell. She's a big mustang freak.. lol. She's built her own and her brother does a lot of mustang engines and also stunk bikes (crotch rockets with wheelie bars and all that bs). Anyway wanted to find out when you guys are looking to get there cause I really wanna get to check out what you guys have done with your cars and all. Plus it will be cool to see you guys race them. Anyway, on the topic of pulleys, I got my K8 pulley sent down from Jersey. It was a piece of cake to install. belts removed, pulley off, back on and belts back on plus test drive all in under 40 minutes.. Thank god.. Car still doesn't pull right but that's due to the broken front tranny/motor mount. that's next on the agenda of parts to be fixed/replaced/ upgraded. whatever is most economical at the time. probably fixed by the end of next week, beginning of the week after. Motor is jumping around too much between shifts and i'm losing power when that happens. It is nice to have her back though. a week and a half of seeing her parked was killing me.