is it okay to drive without power steering belt?
 

I have an asp med smic and the piping has ground down my power steering pulley. I have tried to replace the belt but they just keep coming off because it has no wall to hold it in. I am planning to put an upgraded one like the srmotorsports or an oem replacement. I am wondering if it is okay to drive without it on or will the system seize because the fluid is not being pumped? I dont have an impact wrench or mazda special tool to get the nut off so are there any other ways to do it?

It won't seize, but I wouldn't recommend it. In the event that you need to turn the wheel sharply and quickly, you may not be able to. Needless to say it's more on the dangerous side. It's much worse than doing the half-ass manual conversion (just doing the line loop while removing the pump).

There is a smaller metal inner ring on the stock pulley.

Crack the plastic part off to expose it, squeeze some vice grips as tight as you can get them, they'll rest perfectly against teh left side of the engine. Get a breaker bar and a hammer and whack it hard a few times, it'll break loose.

You can sorta see it here, as you can see, I went Hulk smash on mine :)

It only takes a 17mm socket to remove the pulley. No need to smash and break it.
You can drive the car fine with no belt attached. It is only harder when the car is at a stop or when trying to park.

If you have a cordless torque gun it will make removal easy, otherwise you just need to try and hold the main pulley so the whole system doesn't spin.

Mine wasn't coming off. Not enough resistance even with the belt tightened to break it loose, and any attempt to hold the pulley will probably break it anyway.

Try this,,,
 

Have you tried a real impact gun, like a SNAPON one, 1/2" drive & w/a big dia air line?

have you tried adjusting your piping?

It puts too much pressure on the seals in your power steering system. They might be blown when yo try to put the belt back on.

The pulley has two small holes in it, stick a screwdriver or whatever fits in them, hold it firm, or twist it whatever, and then spin off with wrench... Never had an issue with mine....


J.

OP mentioned that he didn't have access to air tools and for some reason I thought his pulley was already cracked, but realized it's just the lip thats worn down after re-reading.

Mine broke in several places when trying to use the screw driver trick to hold it in place.

If the pulley isn't already cracked apart, the best way to remove it without having access to power tools is a strap wrench.

Take the belt off, strap wrench it up and you should be able to remove the nut.

thanks for the input guys. I just ended up taking it to someone who had a impact gun. I just got the pipe dented where it was rubbing so no issues now.