DcinPa

Hello eveyone I am in need of some help and hopfully you guys can provide me with some tips in order to get my car started again!!! So first let me start off by saying I have an 85 Gsl that has a second gen S5 N/A motor in it. I had to change the water pump so I began to take everything apart. Of course in order to take my water pump and water pump house off the car I needed to take off the front pulley. Now that I have taken the front pulley off they key in the eccentric came out with it. Unfortunitly the key will not go back in at all now!!! I think possibly the counter weight has fallen down or somthing! Is there anyway to properly align all of the parts in the front of the motor so that my key can go back in? I know this is possible by taking off the front cover of the motor but that is the last thing I would want to do right now! Please guys any help at all would help!

KansasCityREPU

iTrader: (9)

Let me first say, the main engine pulley does not need to come off to replace/remove the water pump. You have some work ahead - like pulling the engine out of the car. Removing the main pulley causes the flat Torrington bearing to "fall" out of place. The only correct way to remove the front pulley when the engine is in the car is to have the clutch depressed the entire time until the pulley is reinstalled.

You will need to pull the engine, put the engine on an engine stand with the front point toward the sky, take off the front cover and reset the endplay to correct this.

If you did by chance get the key to fit back in and the pulley installed without removing the engine you will destroy the bearing and engine.

I don't think there is an easy fix.

DcinPa

Maybe my car does not have an OEM pulley then because my water pump housing which needed to come off ( there was a coolent leak between the housing and the block ) hits my front pulley. There was no way at all to get the water pump housing off with out it hitting the pulley. So now the pulley is off. I replaced the front cover once a few months ago and I was able to properly align eveything in the motor whille the motor was still in the car.

KansasCityREPU

iTrader: (9)

Can you post some pictures? Lets make sure we understand what was removed.

Here is a picture of the front pullies on a first gen 12A. To take the waterpump housing off, all that is required is to take the four bolts off that hold the larger pulling on. Then take the four bolts that hold the waterpump pulley off. If you removed the large bolt on the center of the larger pulley, that's trouble.

DcinPa

I have a second gen (1990 ) n/a motor in my car. I just went outside and noticed that I do in fact have an after market pulley on my car. I tried numerous times to take my waterpump/waterpump housing ( the piece that goes right to the block where the upper rad hose attaches too ) off with out taking my main pulley off and it is impossible. I got the motor the way it is now so maybe the guy building it did not think this part through or something but in order to take the waterpump housing off my Main E-Shaft pulley MUST come off. So now i am stuck with a key that will not go in. So I was just wondering if there is any way to align everything with out taking the front cover off. Can I put the car in gear and roll it and possibly slip the key into place? Or is this going to be impossible and Im going to have to take the front cover apart?

KansasCityREPU

iTrader: (9)

Here is a good write-up on what can happen when removing the eccentric shaft bolt without taking the correct steps.

Front Pulley / Thrust Bearings

There is some good news. Based on MazdaTrix, the engine does not need to come out, but the front cover will need to come off. Here is some of what they say in the link:

"If you think you have dropped the bearing, you are welcome to try anything you want to get it back up in place, but we strongly suggest it will be faster to just bite the bullet, and pull the front cover off.
If you think your engine may already have the bearing down, and the engine has been run, first check to see if you have ANY end float. This is the amount the eccentric / pulley / flywheel will move front to back. Spec is .0015" to .0028" - not much at all, but some. If you have absolutely NO float, you have a problem.

All of the damage CAN be repaired with the engine in the car, and the front cover off. The front gear can even be replaced (just DO NOT rotate the eccentric AT ALL while the gear is out."

DcinPa

Thank you for the help I'm going to try a couple more things before starting to tear it down again. Sadly I guess my only option is to remove the front cover again......