I am having trouble with the AC/PS belt tensioner idler pulley inner lip edge grinding the inside of the belt. What is happening is that the pulley seems to be further out than it should be, and the pulley lip is about 3mm further out than all the other pulley inside lips (everything is in perfect alignment except for the tensioner pulley). I have it installed with the pulley lip on the inside (nearest the motor), as this seems to be the way I see it installed on motor photos.

It seems that the spacer on my car is too thick, by about 3mm. Were there different spacers used for different versions of the FD? For now, I have worked around the problem by using a 5-rib belt as opposed to the 6-rib that is called for. This has fixed the squealing and flakes of rubber flying off but it is just a stopgap. I don't know the history of the setup on my car, it is possible that I have an incorrect spacer if there is more than one.

I can have the spacer milled a bit, but I before I do that I wanted to see if there is another solution (different spacer), or if I am doing something wrong with the pulley somehow. Thanks.

 

I thought some year has the pulley install with the lip on the outside, this part I'm not sure.

Have the bearing been replaced recently? You can press the bearing out a bit to move the lip in, there are room to move that bearing in and out a bit to line up the pulley with the belt.

 

i've seen the pulley both ways, not sure why, but you might try that

 

I'll try swapping it around , if not that I can try to reposition the bearing (which may very well have been changed at some point). Thanks

 

It did change between years. My 93 had the lip on the inside. When I ordered a new tensioner bracket, the lip was on the outside. I flipped it thinking it was wrong and it chewed my belt up.

 

I had the same problem. The 94 shop manual shows the lip in the inside, so I think that is correct.

I took my spacer to a machine shop and had them mill it down. The guy charged me $5. Be careful not to remove too much, or the pulley will scrape.

Before I did this, the belt would squeal when starting the car, and it was getting worn on the inside. After milling, all problems are solved.

 

Exactly what is happening for me. I just looked at the online part catalog at Jim Ellis Mazda, the 1993 shows the lip on the inside, the 1994 and 1995 show the lip on the outside, and the 1994 shows a dust cover for the bearing that the 1993 and 1995 don't have. Very complicated. I will try flipping my pulley this weekend and see what it looks like.

Thanks.

 

Page N-31 of the 94 Mazda Factory service manual shows the lip on the inside.

 

I believe my 1995 service manual also shows it facing in.

 

In that case just move the bearing to align the belt.

 

I flipped it over so that the lip is on the outside, that resolved the clearance issue. It also looks like I could shift the bearing a small amount within the pulley to reposition the lip slightly inward, and that might also resolve the problem and allow the lip to be placed facing the motor.

A new pulley is about $65, I think I may order one from Malloy and see how a new one fits. It's possible that my pulley and/or bearing could have been replaced at some point so I could have mismatched parts, or perhaps an incorrectly positioned bearing.

 

So I purchased a new Mazda pulley...and it is exactly the same as my old one. All MY's use the same pulley and spacer per Ray @Malloy. I have it installed with the lip facing out and everything seems to be happy with the belt so I am just going to leave it at that. Thanks for all the replies to this thread!