Ok, Ive been working on cars for a while, and just got a hand me down from my mom, because my S4, got stolen. Ive read all the DIY, for installing a pulley, and changing belts.

Attempt #1:
Anyways, I figured that I would start modding it a little bit, so I bought a pulley from NST for my 05 xB.
I install it, (after fighting for 2hrs finally get the power steering belt back on). Because the pivot screw at the top, got stripped, so I couldn't loosen it. So, I slap the other belt on, with no prob, let it idle for 2min, and take if for a test drive. Pull out of the driveway, and makes a ____ load of noise, so I shut it off immediately, and push it back in the driveway.
Attempt#2
I pop the hood, the crank pulley has come completely off, so I get back under, tear it all apart again. The little alignment pin, on the side of the crank pulley bolt, is sheared off now, and the pulley is completely off. So I losen the alternator again, get the power steering pump on, and it is slacked off ridiculously. When before it didn't have any play. So I get a pry bar, hold tension on it, and tighten down the power steering pump pulley. Everything looks good, start it up and let it idle again for 2 min, and its fine. About to roll out the driveway, and hear more noise, and steering wheel is super tight.
Attempt #3:
Pop the hood again, and the stupid power steering belt has snapped. So I run to the parts store, and by both belts brand new. Install them both, and now the power steering pulley, wont give me no slack to put the new belt on again. Freakin ridiculous, but after about another hour messing with it, I get it on. Took it about 70mph, and seems to be running fine.

Do you think I will have any problems, because that alignment pin, got sheared off? I mean I placed the pulley properly, and it seemed to fit on correctly, because there is a little nub from where the pin used to be. Do you think, it will keep its position?

 

Man, tough luck...i know nothing about pulleys, but good luck to future modding!

 

Good luck. That's one area I really know I shouldn't mess around.


Anything improved after the new pulley?

 

It should be fine assuming you were able to properly torque it before it sheered off. From what your saying, the pulley was mounted properly. If it wasn't, then I am sure it would have loosened up by now.

 

The pulley, just really makes it more responsive, but no gains as I expected none. I only got the lightened pulley, not the underdrive.
But Im not going to do too many power mods to it, just probably intake, headers and exhaust, the rest for looks.

 

That part is more than an alignment pin; it is a key. Torque alone does not prevent the pulley from turning; that locking key does.
And the stock pulley is more than something to guide a drive belt; it is a complex damper, known as Part No. 13407-21020 Damper Assembly, $217. The engine was designed to have the harmonic damper effect of the stock pulley with its thin rubber ring in the middle.
"... The factory stock pulley is designed to absorb both torsion and bending
lateral vibration from the crankshaft. This helps the crankshaft deal with
high vibration in the 400 Hz range after the #1 piston fires..."
http://www.suprasonic.org/public_htm...atedamper.html

 

Yeah that's a good plan.
Get it lowered too.

 

Wow, that is some good info, wish I had seen that before.

 

Well its been three days, put about 800mi on the car, and its running great. No struggle, just the belt is a little squeaky, on initial startup, but when it warms up, its quiet again. Im sure it can be fixed with a little bit of tension adjustment.

 

Good to know!

 

If you had to install again, would you go about differently?

 

I would definitely put lock-tite on the crank bolt, and torque it down to specs, and when you change out your pulley, if you haven't changed your belts yet, Just put brand new belts on. Its only about $40.

 

Yeah, I remember people used to install these and have some bad results. The stock pulley is really the only one that should be on there. I remember reading stories on here about pulleys flying off at speed and things like that. I would have left it stock.

 

Its wierd though, Ive installed pullies on 4 of my 6 cars in the past. And they all ran well over 100,000 - 200,000mi, with no problems. But of course the one that ran 200k+ was stage VI 300ZX TT. So the motor was pretty well built.
But after reading that article, about the toyota pulleys, and harmonic balancer above, I do kind of regret doing it. This is my daily driver now, and I don't want to sacrifice reliability.

 

There are literally hundreds of other things you can do to make it the most fun and useful daily driver out there.

 

I'm pretty sure I bought your pulley when you pulled it off. I have had nothing but nightmares and back to the stock pulley. The pulley sheered my pin off to and I have done nothing now but replace parts that it broke and stripped. Including the bolt and pin. If I had it again to do.. no way in hell.. To anyone reading this.. yeah.. mess with something that doesn't move or drive your entire cooling and electrical system.

 

Also..I do believe that pulley was out of balance.. because it waddled and weebled all over the place.. even when it was torqued to death.

 

Sorry to hear that, but what else broke on yours, the only thing I saw was the alignment pin was the only thing on mine that got sheared off. Just reading that post about the harmonic balancer, is what made me take mine off.
Even though my alignment was sheared off, I just put my stock pulley back on it, and its still driving.

 

It actually stripped out the crank bolt.. that was nasty. I'm not blaming you or anything.. I just think that pulley had a problem from the beginning.. Now my engine.. seems out of alignment.. or the timing is off.. I'm not really sure.. its just not right.

 

I had quite a few issues with my NST pulley as well. Initially, the pulleys weren't beveled at the right place and made contact with the timing cover underneath, so I had to pull it off and take it back to NST so they could send it off to be beveled correctly.
When I got it back, I installed it again and everything was fine for a few hundred miles. Unfortunately, after those few hundred miles, I started having a loud clatter from the pulley again. Worried that I might damage the vehicle, I called a friend and we pulled the car home.
Once home, I pulled the pulley again, but this time I didn't notice any damage to the pulley as I had when it was initially lacking the correctly beveled edge. I cleaned the pulley off and reinstalled it. I started everything up and everything was quiet. I let it idle for several minutes in neutral, periodically rocking the throttle open to see if I noticed any noise.
After idling for several minutes, I took the car for a spin around the block, within less than a minute, there was a noticeable clatter again. The clatter was not as loud as it had been before, but it was present, so I decided to remove the pulley and go back to stock. This was well over a year ago and I have never reinstalled the pulley.
While the response increase was nice and the pulley was attractive, the overall headache and threat of possible damage wasn't worth it.