lurnetsansop

Hello fellow Maximizers. A few days ago I'd noticed a squeak coming from the pulley side of the engine. Sounds like maybe a belt or something rubbing on metal? Here's some audio (and video):

http://tinypic.com/r/23t19o6/8
http://tinypic.com/r/erlz6d/8

(I should mention, that a few weeks before this the Check Engine came on with a Knock Sensor (0304) and Absolute Pressure Sensor (0803) codes. I doubt this is relevant, but who knows?...)

Any ideas? I want to first collect your shared wisdom if I can fix this myself or need to have a mechanic touch this.

njmaxseltd

iTrader: (19)

Power Steering belt looks lose, but I believe you've got another pulley or bearing that's done too. Remove the belts, rotate each pulley by hand. You'll feel the one's making the noise. You can also use a long screwdriver and touch the blade to each component and the handle to your ear. You'll clearly hear which one's are making the noise.

lurnetsansop

thanks njmaxseltd, i'm going to take the belts off tomorrow and see what happens.

asand1

iTrader: (1)

The crank pulley might be separating also. Mark the inner and outer parts and check a day later. If the marks have come out of alignment, its time for a Dorman or UDP.

CS_AR

+1

When my crank pulley separated it sounded like the PS belt was squealing. The crank pulley separated and started rubbing against the PS belt.

Here's a pic of a separated pulley below.

lurnetsansop

Yep, it's the crankshaft pulley for sure:





for comparison, here's the new pulley:



The rubber between the outer and inner parts is clearly torn. It also feels wobbly to the touch.

Well, another year, another rotted-out part, I suppose. I got a new one for 90 bucks off of rockauto, so that wasn't too bad.

But getting this pulley off the motor, that's going to be a challenge.

I tried the starter method with a cheater bar, and tore the cheater bar pipe in two. Next I'll try a real breaker bar vs. the starter. I guess if that doesn't work I'll have to Ask A Mechanic to loosen this bolt for me.

The Wizard

iTrader: (43)

You'll get it. A good strong cheater bar while blipping the ignition method has worked like a charm for me several times. If you have some MAP or propane gas, blast the pulley area around the bolt for 10 seconds too.

lurnetsansop

Well, in the battle of Starter vs. the Pulley Bolt, The Bolt won every single round.
Here's one of them, out of at least 4 or 5 more.

http://tinypic.com/r/e6v9xe/8 (video)

I made sure the engine was warm, and sprayed plenty of pb blaster on the bolt, all to no avail.

So like the guy in the https://maxima.org/forums/4th-genera...lley-bolt.html thread, i'm stuck.
So unless you guys have some more ideas for me to try tomorrow, it looks like i'll be handing this over to a mechanic with over 200ft-lbs of torque.


...
..something i noticed while working on this that concerned me: puffs of smoke from the engine!...

http://tinypic.com/r/6744tg/8 (video)

It doesn't have a readily identifiable smell, but probably not ignition exhaust, maybe more like oil or rubber...
I suspect and hope this is smoke from pulley grinding the side of the PS belt. It's only there when the engine warms up. I'll see if it persists once this pulley job is finished.

CS_AR

I've removed 3 crank pulleys so far without an issue. The only thing that I do that is slightly different from the video is to use a steel gas pipe (from Lowe's) as a cheater bar over my 1/2 drive breaker bar.

I lift up the cheater bar about an inch from the garage floor so the starter can get a small amount of turn momentum going before the bar strikes the floor. When the bar strikes the garage floor, naturally it makes a loud bang when the bolt breaks loose.

I've never been able to get it to work with the bar resting solidly against the garage floor or something like a jack stand in the video.

I would replace the belts along with the pulley.

lurnetsansop

Oh, that makes good sense. I'll try that tomorrow.

CS_AR

I always remove the fuel pump fuse and spin out any remaining fuel. You don't want it to start up while you're breaking the bolt loose.

lurnetsansop

Success! the crank pulley is off, the Alternator pulley is loose, but the PS pulley is stuck. I loosened the hard-to-reach PS tensioner lock bolt, and rotated the PS pulley tensioner clockwise, but the pulley stayed firmly in place. I cut the old PS belt, but I can't get the new one on. Worst-case, i'll walk it on, but then i'll have a stuck pulley without a tensioner bolt supporting it (since I don't know what its original position was).

... How do I get this PS pulley to budge?...


---

edit: nevermind, i walked the belt on, and tightened the tensioner lock nut. the new belt looks about the right tension anyways.

thanks to you guys, TASK COMPLETE. pics and video later.

lurnetsansop

Thanks for your advice, CS_AR , shutting of the fuel pump and burning off the leftovers made things much safer.

as promised:

Removing the crank pulley:

http://tinypic.com/r/dtqbm/8 (video)

[ loosening the pulley video skipped -- there's plenty of these out there ]

Like I said before, Loosening the power steering pulley tensioner lock bolt and the tensioner bolt itself did not budge the pump pulley, so I walked the belt on and was unable to adjust the tension:

http://tinypic.com/r/nflkc0/8 (video) new pulley and belts - -how's the tension on those?


That's all. Thanks all for your help, now i've got another possible problem to diagnose - https://maxima.org/forums/4th-genera...arm-video.html

lurnetsansop

Follow-up: When I originally did this job, I did not replace the crankshaft seal behind the crank pulley. So it was no surprise when I noticed that oil was leaking from behind said pulley.

I redid the job yesterday with a new crankshaft seal, and now -- so far -- no leaks. So take note -- if the seal looks brittle, or is >5 years old, replace it!

Also, I learned how to walk-on a belt with a zip tie.