welfare

has anyone here designed a simple bracket to put in place of the airpump? just to have a pulley with tensioned v belt in the airpumps place? i mean, it seems pretty straight forward. i've got an extra power steering tensioner, which would act as pulley and tensioner in one. would just need a slotted bracket for the pulley to ride on and tension the belt. i like this idea much better than the dual pulley alternator, as that system really just allows more area, as opposed to wrapping the other side of the waterpump pulley. all the kits i've found require to replace pulleys and switch to a ribbed serpentine belt. just wondering if anyone here has put something together using the original v type belt.
as always, much appreciated

lduley

iTrader: (1)

Why not just buy a double belt pulley for the alternator? Easier than fabbing, gives a cleaner look too under the hood

welfare

eureka! just figured out a simple solution. not sure why i didn't figure this before, but the p/s bracket already has a slot, which would have been used for a/c belt tensioning, that fits the p/s tensioning pulley perfectly. and of course has the hole at the top of the bracket for the tensioning bolt. it is, however, on the opposite side of the old airpump, so still doesn't wrap the drivers side of the pulley, but will still wrap better than the 2 alt belts would. also allows for separate tensioning. another reason i'm not keen on the dual alt belt setup. now i just need an a/c equipped waterpump pulley.

welfare

utilizing oem parts and keeping it simple, yet effective. someone else has got to have figured this out already

welfare

i feel like the dual alt belt was more of a band aid than an actual solution. as i'd mentioned, i don't like 2 belts using the same tension. also, there's no change in the wrap on the wp pulley. only the area. of course, more area is better than nothing. but still not optimal by any means

Dak

I believe all water pump pulleys are the same within each series. The A/C belt doesn't go around the water pump regardless. It goes around that larger pulley on the E-shaft. Even if you had the idler it doesn't line up with the water pump pulley.

welfare

goddammit. yea ijust looked at ac belt routing and yea mazda never wrapped it around the wp pulley. bastards. another snag. back to the drawing board

Dak

Since going by your profile you have an 86 you have this option.
https://www.mazdatrix.com/b-pulley.htm
Scroll to the bottom of the page and look at the cog Gilmore drive belt kit. It's expensive and you'd have to ditch your power steering.

Dak

I've never used it and don't know how well it works but there is also this option.
Yoohoo Belt

welfare

87t2. nope. not paying for a fancy kit when there's a simple solution. the username is well suited. i may have to go back to my original thought of utilizing the old air pump bracket. just have to use the swinging type tensioner as opposed to threaded in the interest of keeping it simple. which is a shame cuz i really like the threaded tensioner

welfare

yea i tried that stupid belt too. just a sad attempt that is. there isn't even a tensioner. there is no way to make that fit snug

TonyD89

iTrader: (10)

Just have to wonder why the Gilmer belt won't fit '89-'91.

Dak

Post up what you end up with if you get something to work. If it's any consolation if all else fails I've been running the dual alt. belts for 15 years without any problems. I've found a Gates belt that fits well as the stock belt is too small with an oversized pulley.

Dak

I wondered that too. It looks like a pretty nice setup.

jackhild59

iTrader: (7)

Use the double belt.
Use a yoohoo belt.
Leave the air-pump in place.

Three tried and true solutions.

I have a 90 Vert with the air-pump in place.
I have an 88 10th Anniversary with the air-pump removed and a double pulley.

I have used a yoohoo belt on another S4 (1988 N/A that went to heaven)

They all work just fine.

The yoohoo belt is cheap, cheaper, cheapest-Welfare style!

AbortRetryFail

You could always gut the air pump.

If you remove the vanes, seals, springs, etc, you're left with a couple of bearings, and a rotor that spins freely on them. Sure it's still excess rotating mass, but it's a lot less drag than the pump moving air.

welfare

yea one of the reasons i took the airpump out was space tho. and i tried the yahoo belt, or i should say gates supplement, and it was, as expected, extremely loose.
just made a trip to the wreckers today, since i needed a few things anyways, and low and behold, 96 mpv p/s belt tensioner bolts right up to the front cover. belt alignment is off by a few mm tho. i'll remedy that soon enough

Jager

iTrader: (10)

I've done the double belt 2-3 times now. My preference (looking on distributing my own kits here soon :o).

Otherwise:

Pulleys & Belts (86-91 RX-7)

Also a great tensioner to help with proper tension for the alternator.

Listen to this guy though, no need to reinvent the wheel.

welfare

am i the only one who feels that using 2 belts on a single pulley, or a belt that has no tensioning mechanism, is far from "the wheel"?

welfare

if those are wheels, this is japanese forged aluminum





it is very dirty right now, as it's fresh from the depths of greasy old mpv. but this puts the belt placement in a spot similar to the original air pump, yet much more out of the way and taking up less space, with removal of the airpump bracket as well. now just need to size up the belt. i'll post the part number when i get that sorted

Banzai-Racing

iTrader: (11)

The S4 and S5 water pump pulleys have different sized center bores. The S4 WP pulley will not fit on the S5 pump because the center hole is too small. People have mistakenly used the S5 pulley on the S4 pumps, which causes pulley wobble due to it not being hub centric.

TonyD89

iTrader: (10)

Out of curiosity, could one accurately machine the hole in the S4 gilmer pulley to fit an S5 water pump or would other problems like bolt pattern, belt alignment, or pump body interference arise?

Banzai-Racing

iTrader: (11)

It could be machined without any issues as long as tight tolerances are kept, just drilling it out will not be good enough.

Dak

It seems so.

Jager

iTrader: (10)

I concur.

It's really that simple.