When taking off my air pump last week i noticed that the water pump was really hard to turn.

The alt, and the crankshaft would turn, but the water pump was slipping! We really had to crank that alternator up there to tighten the belt enough.

Is this causing lots of drag on my engine?

~Geoff

 

Is it that the pump itself was actually hard to turn, or just that the belt was slipping. The belt has to be kept really tight after removing the air pump because now you only have one belt and it only contacts the side of the water pump pulley. I've found that the cheaper Korean belts do not hold up well under the higher tension, and now I only use quality Gates belts or Mazda belts made by Mitsuboshi. After an initial re-tensioning, they settle in and don't stretch like the cheap belts.

 

Crankshaft? What kind of motor do you have in there? LOL. I would assume that if there was something wrong with your water pump, it would make a whiney noise and/or leak coolant out of the "eye". It may be causing a bit of drag since all belt based water pumps do so, but if it's not cavitating and your motor isn't overheating then I would leave it alone.

NATE

 

yeah stick with the Gates belts...or NAPA ones since they are gates. Maybe you should get a dual belt alternator pulley. I have one and it never slips having 2 belts on there.

 

I'm putting my dual pulley on there tonite.

This should fix the problems hopefully.

 

dude, check out the mazspeed website under the facts section... removing the emissions. There is a belt in there that they reference ... it goes around the e-shaft and waterpump only

 

side note... your pump does seem to be stiffer than mine.wonder if we can lube it when taking off the pulleys tonite...

 

You said pump,stiffer,lube,taking off, and tonite all in the same sentence. HAHAHA J/P sorry....Hope you guys get that pulley on though.

 

There is no lube on the waterpump bushing. The antifreeze/coolant is supposed to lubricate it. The bushings do sieze up or gall occasionally, though.
Personally, I think the dual pulleys are simply power robbers, if only to a slight degree. They do afford a certain sense of security, though.

 

Ok, yeah, I must admit, that is kinda interesting... IF YOU LIKE JACKING OFF!!! We know what's on your mind. Me personally? I got a wife to take care of that particular need.

 

Well I guess theres no danger of getting her pregnant then? j/k

 

Careful about over-tightening a belt: you may run an accessory bearing. Too tight and it exerts too much tension on one bearing side.

Garage Gorilla over-tightened my alt belt a couple months ago and it blew off the other night.

If a belt squeeks at high RPM I shoot some WD40 on it. Doesn't stop the slip, but it stops the squeek, and I figure that stops the friction and belt over-heating. Seems to work, but I only got 30 years experience with it so far.

B