I have never in my life seen something as poorly produced or engineered as the pullies on an FC. The holes are all offset and so that way it will only go on 1 way. No matter what way I turn it, never can I get all 4 bolts to go in. Ive been tryin to get my car running again, as I just had the engine out and rplaced all of the gaskets and whatnot. I had the pulley on there the way I thought it went, had the ring and pulley pulled away from the shaft sticking out that it bolts to. Thats the only way I can get the bolts started. When I tightened it down though, It obviously wasnt right cause the force of the bolts made the ring bend in 2 places. Anyone else had any hard times with this or know any tricks. Im about fed up with it. Everything ready to go but I cant get it in time. Sounds like its 90 degrees out cause it sounds like it has no seals in it. Just smooth sounding. DAMNIT, sorry guys just had to vent and see if Im alone on this bullshit

 

Tell me if Im missing something here. What I have figured so far is the bolt pattern on the pulley is sort of like this (not to that extent of course, but to make it easier to see). 2 bolts are close together, and straight across those 2 are further apart. I can see this clearly with my eyes on the pulley, but I cannot see it on the shaft sticking out where it bolts to. So If I take a piece of paper and poke holes through the paper into the holes and get the pattern of it and see which way it goes, shouldnt that work? Then bolt the pulley on, line up the timing mark, take out the CAS, line up its mark and put it back in and I should be within 5 or 10 degrees of correct timing should I not? Or am I forgetting a step? Seems simple enough yet i cant get my damn car started.

 

Only one hole in each pulley is slightly offset so that they can only go back together one way. This is so the timing marks will end up back in the correct place. If you arrange them properly they will go back on fine. They came off that way didn't they?

You've jumped to the wrong conclusion and made yourself look a bit silly. This is entirely your own ****-up, not bad engineering on Mazda's part.

 

Its my **** up that the pulleys wont go back on the right way... ok buddy. What I was saying though, the innerm ost main pulley itself will go on fine, but the ring and the outer most 2 pulleis, when ll stacked up, the holes arent exactly right for whatever reason. No matter what I do they wont go on without putting sideways pressure on 1 or more bolts. Yes its on the correct way, its just the precision of the holes or whatever else it is, is poor on my car. After removing the ring and replacing it with 4 thick flat washers, and doing away with the 2 outer pullies, of which I dont need, it went back on ok. Thanks for the help/ non help though

 

Are you sure the ring was not upside down or otherwise wrong? The pulleys are keyed to only go on a specific way and each layer must match the previous layer.

 

If you're putting all 3 on at once, take them off and try to align them all properly first if at all possible, thats what i did.

 

Im 99% sure they were going on the way required, but aligning them off the car, even the correct way one or more of the holes would be off by just the width of the bolts threads. I could get the bolts to go through all of the holes but when trying to put them all on the shaft, they wouldnt line up all the way. I could get 3 of 4 on and the last one would be almost in, but just wouldnt go. Either way I got that fixed now I think, Just used the main inner pulley for the alt. and replaced the ring with washers. Went on only 1 way like it was supposed to. Now I have another question regarding my car. Didnt figure yall would want to see another no start thread

Ive got the pulley on, CAS aligned correctly (dot on the gear lined up with the think on the side of the shaft) So Im confident that my timing is correct. Im getting spark cause I pulled a pug and saw it jump, very strong at that. Im not 100% on the fuel though. I pulled the main line from the pump and got showered with fuel, so its obviously making some pressure, but when I got the line off and turned on the pump, I saw nothing more than a stream run out, which it was doing with the pump off anyway. BUT, spraying ether into the intake didnt make it fire either. So what else could be not working correctly to cause a non start situation? I checked for resistance on the CAS and it was 155ohms each side (calls for between 110 and 220)... Im sorta lost here. Cause I figured if everything else was good, the ether should have made it spit or sputter or something. The plugs were wet when i pulled so do you think somehow its just majorly flooded? I turned it over a ton with the pump off, so I figured it would have cleared up by now. ANy help or input would be greatly appreciated.

 

There is nothing wrong with the pulleys. Did you have any trouble getting them off? No, because if they're all facing the right way and aligned correctly, they will slide right off and back on perfectly. It's not the pulleys, it's you, so stop criticising Mazda.

 

Were you hear watching me do it? No you were not. And yes I did have problems getting it off. When it came off the bolts drug down the sides of the holes and took some of the threads off. Either way Mazda COULD have done a better job designing the pullies. At least they could have put marks on each pulley so you dont have to sit for 10 minutes trying to match up all of the holes. It WAS a bad design by Mazda IMO so you can think what you like, but it doesnt make it right... but whatever. I guess your right, I cant line up holes, Im useless

Like I already said, I could get them to line up 95% of the way, but one hole was always off just by a hair and wouldnt go once I put the bolts through and tightened them down. Dunno if that was Mazdas fault of whoever rebuilt my engine last. Either way Mazda could have done more in the pulley department. You get a dot of paint for a timing mark on the pulley and no help with pulley alignment

 

The bolt holes are keyed so there is only ONE WAY for the typical stupid mechanic to put them on. If they had just marked the pulleys, then mistakes would be made all the time. Also the marks wouldn't last 20+ years in an engine bay.

It's possible that your specific set of pulleys has some sort of manufacturing flaw, but the rest certainly aren't like that. They can be a pain to remove due to corrosion but that's about the only complaint I have about the front pulley assembly.

 

I had this prob like 2 weeks ago, the pulley was on backwards, just remember the timing marks face the front cover, and that ring also goes on one way, look for the side that has circles around the holes (worn because of the bolts), and that side faces out.

 

well i meant more like leave the bolt holes like they are but add a smaller pilot hole off to one side or cut a notch into each one for alignment purposes. Either way I have it on now. I just put back on the inner pulley. None of the pulleys have problems by themselves but when you stakc them they wont go on right. Plus all I need anyway is the alt pulley, so the outher 2 are useless, for now anyway, cause I will need a/c soon. 100 degree humid summers

 

There are painted indentations in the pulley for the timing marks, and I didn't need any help replacing my pulleys. Keep slamming Mazda all you want, but you're the only one complaining about this...

 

yes, and this is my thread so you can leave and not post here, you do have that option you know...? i didnt know people couldnt ask a question and post an opinion. IMO Mazda could have done better. The pullies are among the worst engineered things on the car. Do you agree or haveto agree...no, so why are you still posting?

 

Take a die grinder and smooth out the inner edge some, taking just a hair of metal off. There's a lot of rust and crap that builds up between the hub and pullies, making them hard to get back on. IF you can get at it, take emery cloth and slide it around the hub where the pullies side on, to clean that surface up too. Then hit it with brake cleaner etc. to remove debris and see if you get a better fit.

I agree that the pullies could have been designed better, such as making a NOTCH instead of putting the holes offset in such a way that you're pretty much trying to realign everything blindly when working in the car. They seemed to have gotten wiser with the FD, as there is such a notch that makes it much more obvious which way the pullies go. That, ladies and gentlemen, is called DESIGN IMPROVEMENT.

Don't mind those other guys above you...they're members of the FC elitist group that believes mazda could design nothing wrong, the cars never tear up on their own, and any issue anyone has with an rx-7 is solely the owners fault because they never break or have problems due to design/engineering. Most of my advice is rooted in hands on experience, much of the other advice you might get will be based upon theory and "armchair engineering".

 

hahaha pwnd.

 

See, thats all I was saying lol. and yes, I was sure that everything was clean. I saved myself some trouble by cleaning off the hub with a wire wheel on a drill, and then took the ring and cleaned the inside edge really well. Went on nice and smooth, its almost a shame I couldnt use it haha. I ended up just using washers in place of the ring. Much easier to deal with and probably does just as well. Adds some thickness and stength and helps keep the holes from getting gouged out.

 

Sure there are plently of things that could've been done better (isn't 20 years of hindsight wonderful), but most of the criticism of Mazda's design I read here is based on ignorance and/or misunderstanding. "I don't understand it or couldn't get it to work so it must be crap". If people spent a little more time learning they might find things a lot easier when they picked up their tools.

I didn't need any theory or engineering to reinstall the pulleys. In my hands-on experience it was easy.

 

Jesus, you need to invest in some reading glasses. Here, I will repeat myself yet again. I understand that the pullies are keyed to go one way. i understand that under normal conditions you can line them up out of the car and fairly easily get them to go back in. But in my case, that isnt so. Whatever the reason being, I could not use all 3 pullies and the ring no matter what way I put them in. So Mr. Smartass, you can stop posting the same **** over and over again, so I can stop posting the same **** over and over again. Goddamn