bolt to eccentric/pulley came out and oil every where! The bolt with rubber washer, spring pallet thing and cooper washer where all insde the radiator housing. Should I just replace the bolt and spring pallet thing with locke tight? The oil is inside the pulley therefore this eliminates the front seal leak. Also this is a 88 convert.

 

It came COMPLETELY out? That things supposed to have around 175ft-lbs of torque IIRC, that thing shouldn't have come out! Have you checked the threads/etc for damage/etc? If that thing came out there's a good chance your bearings fell down or got destroyed since the front stack is free to float about without it!

 

Yes, all the way out. I remeber taking that pulley off when I did an engine swap a few years ago, but did not use any sealant to tighten it in. Maybe it worked a loose over time. The engine still ran fine before I shut it down from oil everywhere. You think it's ok to replace everything with some loke tight or something.

 

Front stack bearings? How will I know if it's bad from this? Will it still run if this is bad?

 

I would be extremely weary of reassembling it and calling it ok. There's no way you can know if the bearings behind the front cover fell out of place or got destroyed.

 

Well the bolt only came out. From the looks of it this holds the pulleys in place. If the pulley did not fly off causing things to move around, ths should be fine, right? Maybe I'm not getting the concept of the bearings. Everthing that holds these bearings in place is still there. The main pulley never came off. Hmmmm...

 

Well, that bolt holds the front hub on, which presses against the spacer that the bearings sit on inside of the front cover. If this bolt comes loose and the hub moves forward at ALL (even 2-3mm is bad) from the spacer/stack, then the bearings fall off the spacer and get torn apart.

 

Read this

http://www.mazdatrix.com/faq/pulley.htm

 

That bolt holds two bearing in place. The two bearings will "drop" just about 3-5 millimeters but enough to be damaged if you try to put that bolt back in. Those two bearings are criticle for your "End Play" (look it up in the FSM or do a search on that term) Cahnces are that you'll never get the bolt back in properly

here is how you should look at this
1) You now have to (maybe pull the motor and) open the front cover and reset the bolt properly
----------------------------------or by failing fix this properly---------------------------
2) you have to pull the motor break it open and replace the e-shaft resulting in at least a soft seal rebuild. THEN you can reset the bolt properly

Notice of the choices given, none say you can just put the bolt back in with lock tight.

You have a long weekend have fun.

 

I just checked that Mazdatrix page.....its awsome. I mean the detail that they give along with the pics will definatly "learn" you.

Thanks SonicRat

 

Yeah, I love that page. Read that the first time I ever thought about that bolt! Mazdatrix has some great info on their site under the FAQ/Howto section!

 

If we take the time to read the factory service manual, we find there is a way to tell if the torrington bearings etc have falled out of place. Measure with a dial caliper the distance b/t the eccentric shaft and the pulley boss.

This measurement is in all the service manuals whether series four or five and even in the Haynes manual. I posted the page out of the fsm once. If they havn't deleted it, it's out there somewhere. The measurement is 0.0961 max

 

if ti fell out while the engine was running then it is more than likely the bearings fell and are damaged, i would pull the cover off and inspect everything, replace the bearings anyways even if you don't see any damage.

 

Ditto........ I REALLY hate messing with the front bolt, especially if the tranny is still on the car.... with the tranny out, you can put the flywheel immobilizer on so that the motor doesn't move and then brace the flywheel forward so that the e-shaft doesn't move when you take the bolt out... but its still no gaurantee..

I've seen TOO many people take that bolt out and then hear/feel a sickening crunch when you put the bolt back in because the bearings have slipped and they are getting smashed to hell as you tighten the bolt....

But falling out???? DAMN.... i've never heard of that before..

PS... good thing you shut if off quick before all the engine oil shot out the front of the shaft!!!

 

the bearings can't actually fall off of the shaft but they will slip off of the collar and get pinched when reassembling it.

i would just much rather have the peace of mind of not tossing it back together and have the bearings spit metal through the whole engine but that is just me..

 

There is no "maybe pull the motor". The motor doesn't have to be taken out of the car to remove the front cover.

I would remove the front cover, reset the bearing, that MIGHT, ("MIGHT" is enough for me to pull the front cover), have fallen out of the collar, replace the front cover oil o-ring (while your there), replace the front main seal, pulley o-ring, not to mention (if you remove the oil pan while doing this), replacing the oil pan gasket (or use RTV) and clean the pickup screen.

If you have a couple of hundred bucks to spare, I could PM you a list of all the things I replaced, just while I had the front cover off.

Theres alot of things you COULD replace WHILE YOU HAVE THE FRONT COVER OFF.

 

I believe the torque on teh front bolt is 90ftlbs stock.

James

 

If you measure, you'll KNOW if the thing fell down or not. ENGINE chapter.

 

Has the main pulley boss and/or boss key moved at all? The key should NOT be flat/level with the pulley and should be pushed in a littl

If it were me, I'd bite the bullet and pull the main cover to ensure everything is installed correctly. It is not a hard job, just a tedious one. I did it 2 months ago on mine.

 

Why are you taking issue with what I said? I said "maybe" as in he may want to do other things. But notice the parenthesis?? That means you could read the sentence without adding what is in the parenthsis.

"You now have to open the front cover and reset the bolt properly"

I was just stating that NOW pulling the engine was an option. After he Muckes up his bearings he will HAVE TO pull his motor without option. Seems like a simple cause and effect or consequences to actions or in-actions.


James, your right the torque is 90 ft. lbs.

 

Can you measure with the tranny still hooked up??

 

Yes. I'd be more interested in if there is enough room in front of the engine for a dial caliper, but he can use a depth gauge or even get practical and say measure a piece of material 0.0961 in length and match that against front of the e-shaft to the base of where the pulley bolt rests.

It's probably fixed by now or broken further. It's been a couple of days now.

 

Yeah, I think I quoted the ammount I had to use to get it off. Damn loctite!

 

[QUOTE=homebrewer]Has the main pulley boss and/or boss key moved at all? The key should NOT be flat/level with the pulley and should be pushed in a littl[QUOTE]

This is not something you can eyeball.

Semi correct - not so much biting the bullet - only choice as I see it.

 

someones gonna have to pull a front cover!! muah ha ha ha.. sry dude.. better safe than sorry though right?