After my March 1992 FD engine was replaced in 1996 due to the #2 rotor e-shaft oil jet coming unscrewed, I have had some PS pump alignment problems.
Right after the new engine install, I had to place a thin washer between the PS pulley and the bearing. This moved the pulley forward about 1/16" to prevent the belt from running over the front edge and cutting off 1 rib.
This worked fined until this year when I installed the RX-8 AC compressor kit. It immediately started shredding the belt.
Using a straight edge and a DAYCO pulley alignment kit, my PS pulley is out of plane with the engine main pulley.
I had to use different washers between the PS pump and the PSA/AC bracket t get it to work but not perfectly.

Do you think the PS/AC bracket is warped and should be replaced?

 

It could be that the three bolts behind the ps pulley may be loose or not aligned correctly.

 

Not that and to be correct there are 4 bolts.


Lately when the engine first started and all is cold, the belt squeaked on the PS pulley. After it warmed up the squeak stop.
Thus yesterday I removed the belt and reinstalled the PS pump in a stock manor. The PS pulley aligns with the AC pump but still not the e-shaft pulley.
New belts are not in perfect alignment due to packaging warping., Took a new belt and soaked for a while in very hot water. This released the stress and it flatten out in one plane for the outer edges.
Put the new belt on and it ran cold and hot without any noise or rib hopping.

Another possible problem is the ribs on American micro rib belts are two square and not V shaped enough and not deep enough. Thus they have to wear a lot to fit better.
If two pulleys are a little out of alignment but far apart, the belt can bend a little to compensate.
I need to check a friends FD's pulley alignment to compare to mine.

 

Hey Howard -

I've seen similar issues, had a lot of issues with belt noise on my car when I got it. Few things I found -

- There is a spacer between the idler pulley and the bracket, there seems to be different thicknesses of this spacer depending on year maybe? Never really found a correlation as to why some seem to be different.
- Some cars seem to want the pulley installed "backwards" with the lip towards the front of the car.
- Pettit has a replacement aluminum idler pulley that I've run for years with zero issues or fit problems. Not sure if it's still around.

Dale

 

What PS pulley are you using? OEM? Any photos? I doubt the PS/AC aluminum bracket is bent. Have you tried another pulley?

 

There are only three bolts behind the pulley like i said

 

Stock pulley and it rotates true.

 

Some people just loved to lose.

 

There are only 3 behind the pulley like i said. Nice try

 

There are 3 behind the pulley, but you're missing this 4th one (yellow highlight)...

 

I said there are three bolts behind the pulley. I didn't say anything about any other bolts to check.

 

I think we can all agree there are 3 bolts behind the pulley on the bracket, and a 4th one as shown in the previous diagram.

To add a relevant comment that might actually help the OP, one of the things I've found is that when installing the PS pump, it's best to start by threading those 3x bolts on the bracket to PS pump just barely finger tight, so the pump still has a little bit of "wiggle" relative to the bracket, then thread that 4th bolt in finger tight and finally torque them all down in sequence & evenly (i.e., top bolt, 4th bottom bolt then each side alternating in sequence). As-is, if you tighten any one of those bolts all the way down before the rest of them are threaded in loose/finger-tight, you'll find it's a real bitch to get the rest of the bolts to align correctly and thread in properly - the assembly tolerance is pretty damned tight here. If the last PS pump install was a "forced" fit, it might explain some of the misalignment.

 

What he said.

 

Chuck, I hope you’re doing well and enjoying. I won’t speculate what is causing the misalignment. Especially when I’m not standing in front of the car. When assembling a short block some years ago, I inadvertently didn’t have the oil cooler line that mounts from the rear oil pedestal to the front cooler installed correctly. The front support bracket is sandwiched between the lower front mount of the iron and the ac / power steering bracket. It’s only like 125 thousands or so in height. I didn't have it in between them but rotated down by mistake. This pulled the power steering pulley cockeyed. I caught it pretty quickly when I tried to install a belt.

Either way, it’s really tough to see any sort of alignment when everything’s installed. This tool may help you get everything sorted. It’s available online or at some auto parts store you could potentially order it. It’s a laser adjustment tool from gates. I do believe others make it though. It’s probably your best bet to try to get it straightened out rather than playing the guessing game.


~ GW

 

(1) The oil cooler line bracket is mounted correctly between the iron and the AC/PS bracket.

(2) When the JP3 RX8 AC compressor install was completed earlier this year, I used new belts but there were problems with their alignment.
The belts was moved forward and would cut off 1 rib.
Using a metal straight edge and the DAYCO laser pulley alignment kit, bad misalignments were found on the PS pump.
All this was basically mentioned earlier.
Thus I used shims on the 3 front PS pump bolts to fix the alignment problem. This worked until lately when the belt started squealing when cold.

(3) That brings us back to Sept 13 when I started this post.
I put the PS pump on as per the manual.
The pulley laser showed no PS out of alignment with the AC compressor but some with the main engine pulley.
Used a new belt but stress relieved it in very hot water for a hour.
That is where I am now with all working when cold and hot.

Thus all is back where it was earlier this year when it did not work but is working now except a new belt.


Stress relieving the belt seems to be a cure???

 

Got it.

Unfortunately, In my experience, all of the pulleys have to lineup pretty closely. The newer serpentine belt systems are not as forgiving as the old V-belt when it comes to tension/alignment. Not to mention our belt system on the FD Pre-dates the automatic tensioner. I saved this old tech article that talked about pulley horizontal/vertical Angular and axial offset. I’m thinking that you soaking the belt relaxing it allowed to better Deflect or bite into worn /smooth ribs of the ps pulley . Are you running aftermarket pulleys ?

If you still wanted to try to tweak the alignment,, there is a bunch of slop in the ps/ac bracket mounting holes. You could try loosening it up and tweaking it tho it’s a pain moving the compressor out the way to get to it.

~ https://cdn.websites.hibu.com/d6f48d...-alignment.pdf

Having said all that, if it’s simply squealing when it’s cold, but works when it’s warm. Before you got to involved on it, you may just want to rough up the power steering pulley ribs and keep tightening the belt up until it doesn’t do it when cold. That would alleviate the squeaking when cold from slipping. I know it’s important not to over tighten that belt because it’ll place undo stress on the front eccentric shaft bearing. That may be your best bet.


~ GW

 

Glad I saw your post, I thought the previous owner put this spacer there and was about to throw it away. I took measurements for anyone that is missing it, it’s not in the parts list.