MX-3.com

jsut a quick q...

i recently bought an AC compressor that was pulled off a ford probe and everything bolted right up -- unfortunately i didn't realize that it didnt have the same pulley until my belt shredded about a week later.

i took a look and found that the new compressor pulley has only 4 grooves while the ones on the alt and engine have 5 grooves. i since purchased a 4 groove, thinner belt and put it on and everything seems fine, but i just wanted to make sure this was going to hold up ok if it's not as wide a belt.

thanks

Might and might not. Since the MX-3 parts use a wider belt it will offset the balance of the pullies and ruin the bearings in them. Or it may not since it shouldn't be that far off.
I'd say to keep an eye out for a new AC compressor to chage yours over. I bouhgt a rebuilt one on E-Bay, a while back, but cheap. Or see if you can find a way to swap the pullies on the compressors.

Pulley swap is easiest as long as the pulley is not an integral part of the output shaft seal.
I have seen tons of A/C compressors in the FS area although shipping will not be cheap especially if it goes in or out of Canada. The duty and tax is a killer!

I don't know how it could be different from the MX3 since they both have the same crank pulley and alternator. You sure you got the AC off a V6 Probe?

thats what i was wondering myself -- i bought it from schuttie, so i can't positively say where it came from... it looks EXACTLY the same tho, with exception to the pulley itself, which is why i didn't notice the problem in the first place. but i would think it would be unusual for the V6 and a four banger to use the exact same compressor, jsut with a diffrent pulley, no?

Just checked my wife's car with the FS engine, and it's a 4 groove.

Both the 4 cyl and 6 cyl do both look interchangable.

4 Cyl:
http://www.rockauto.com/ref/SPI/Detail2 ... 657487.jpg

6 Cyl:
http://198.208.187.182/internet/PartIma ... r=15-20985

I have also been looking.. and they look the EXACT same... its a k series engine.. same bracket... um why would it not work? klde swaps have the mx3 compressor.

well.. given that everything's the same except the pulley, would it be stupid to assume that everything's more or less in line and i'm not going to ruin my bearings then..? i wish i hadn't thrown the old broken one out, damnit...

Yea thats weird because Im staring at the engine it came off of, and it has 4 grooves on all the pullies, and my two spare engines have 4 grooves on all the pulleys.

How that yours would have more...I have abs no Clue. but I would say nothing will go wrong with it b/c it worked on my car for a year until I took it off.

Maybe the guy that had the car before you replaced some stuff and thats how it happened but who knows.


My advice though, dont worry about it. If something happens though let me know and Ill send ya another one, but like I said all mine have 4 grooves.

well i mean.. like you said, you're getting your stuff off a probe, so it seems to me like probe compressors aren't direct swaps for ZEs. i have a ZE now, and before that I had the K8 -- both of those engines had 5 groove pulleys.

i'm not sure that it's particularly helpful that it worked fine on your car, when you had the proper compressor for the proper engine. that's not exactly the case with me here

no my K8 has 4 groove pulleys as well. I have 3 engines in my garage. 2 DE's (one probe, one mx6) and a K8. They all have 4 grooves. Also my mx6 that I bought in June then just sold a little bit ago had 4 groove pulleys.

i dont see how that can be... i mean.. this AC compressor wasnt from my ZE, it was off my K8. so given that the engine pulleys off the ZE engine and alternator match the AC compressor off my K8, that would demonstrate that both my old K8 and my new ZE both have 5 groove pulleys. that, plus when i went to the store and asked a new belt for a 93 MX< they gave me a 5 groove belt. anyone care to confirm that 5 groove is the standard for the MX?

someone take a moment to verify this for me? thanks

Jim. The belt for the Probe is the same fu<king belt. Same part number, same length, same grooves.

yea thats what i figured, but which is it 5 grooves or 4? 2 posts up schuttie is saying they all come with 4 grooves. i wanted some third party confimation that thats not true. my k8's had 5 grooves, the ZE had 5 grooves, and the belt that i got from autozone for the MX had 5 grooves.