Well, I drove out to my parent's house this morning and on the way, the tensioner pulley for the power steering pump fused. The belt kept spinning though but you could smell the rubber burning. Now I have to get my car back home to work on it.



Is there any harm in removing the belt, not running the power steering pump and driving it home?



I don't think too much would happen because it would be kinda like the modification that guys have done to theie P/S racks by sealing them off with the bolts. It would be a closed system just no fluid being pumped. The fluid would still be in there though.



I need help with this today so I can get the car home.



Thanks a lot.



Greg

 

You would be doing yourself a favor by disabling the P/S. You dont really need it in these cars, and it wont hurt anything not running it.

 

wtf is that the pulley I sent you?

 

No the pulley you sent me was for the A/C. This is for the P/S.

 

RoninFC, thanks for the reply. I appreciate your answer and I am going to remove the belt right now. I am going to get rid of the P/S. This is a good excuse to do it. Thanks guys.



Greg

 

Just a little update for anyone who cares....



I removed the power steering rack, pump and hoses yesterday. I installed a manual rack. I am glad I did this. More room in the engine bay, less weight, no more leaks... the list goes on.



It took me 3 1/2 hours to do this. Removing the rack was a pain because of where some things are located and the tight space. I did it the Haynes way from underneath the car because I did not feel like removing the radiator like the FSM does it.



The manual rack installed in no time, just bolted right on. The car feels good and handles well with no real change in feel while moving. The manual rack is much easier to turn than the P/S rack without a pump pumping fluid through it.



Well, the springs and struts will have to wait for next weekend...oh well.

 

Nice work. How much weight do you figure you saved? If mine starts acting up, its outta here!

 

the bearing for those pulleys is all of $10 from Mazda.

 

Down with power steering. Especially when it starts actin up. Yah my TII has a manual rack, my SE has a disabled rack its harder but I dont mind.

 

I weighed the manual rack before I installed it. I forgot what the weight was but I wrote it down. I am going to weigh all the parts that came off just for grins to see what the difference is.



I know the bearings for the pulleys can be bought cheaply but my problem was a leaking P/S pump also. I recently purchased it used and it had already begun to leak. I had also recently purchased a P/S rack which began to leak also. I have not had much luck as of late and was tired of putting money into it so I switched to manual.