I've always assumed my excessively loud idle was caused by a failing pulley of some sort. But just let it be for the time being. While dis-assembling everything to prepare for a rebuild, the idler pulley was definitely in poor shape. But then I got to the air pump.... See the video below...

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RcOtSKZpfxY

That is abysmally bad.

I could not tell using a stethoscope whether it was more likely to be an internal bearing or something on the idler. But, regardless, I couldn't find much on rebuilding these outside of the fact that it really isn't done.

I was already on the fence about deleting the air pump anyways. I was leaning towards leaving it since street-ability is important to me, and I didn't want to risk the odds of terrible odors, even with a Hi-Flow cat.

At $1500, a new pump is out of the question. The used ones that I can find for ~$200 look like absolute garbage and make me think I might be getting something just as bad.

So am I better off just deleting it and replacing it with one of the many idler options available?

 

Look in the market place here on the forum, I think you can get a better deal than that. They should be a dime a dozen considering many cars have them removed.

Dale

 

Air pump for sale here:
https://www.rx7club.com/market/1161710

 

Unpopular opinion, you could remove the clutch, find the correct size bearing and replace it. I’ve done one on the ac compressor witch they are basically the same and it’s not a bad job. Of course, you could always get a good used one. Mr. Jim posted a link that I’m sure will fit your needs. Just remember, the manual and automatic pulley sizes are different.


~ GW