Power steering pulley question

[fordfool]

Is there a bolt that goes into the end of the power steering pump shaft to secure the pulley? I know it gets pressed on, but just wondering. How much free-play should there be if you wiggle the pulley? Thanks!

[way2old]

There is no bolt that holds it in place. It is a press fit. There is a small amount of play built into the pump. Not really sure how much cause I have never measured one. If there are no better answers, I might try to measure one and see.

[shorod]

It probably depends a bit on the model year. If you provide the year, and I have a service manual for that year, I'll check the manual to see if it lists the free play specification.

-Rod

[fordfool]

98 3.0 vulcan. It keeps shredding belts. You can see the misalignment when the belt crosses the power steering pulley. I was wondering if maybe centrifugal force was making it push out too much. All pulleys look and spin good and idler and tensioner pulleys look and spin good. The belt keeps tracking off. Could a sightly bent tensioner arm do this? The tensioner and the power steering pump are both around $50, so I would rather not buy either without feeling confident that is the problem. One other thing, something is definitely not right because the belt just BARELY goes on. Seems too tight.

[fordfool]

Everything on the accessory bracket is tight. I can wiggle the pump and shake the whole car.

[fordfool]

Update: I removed idler and tensioner pulleys and checked other pulleys with a straight edge. The power steering pulley is off by about 3/16 inch. I believe that the pulley hub should be pressed flush with the shaft. It's not. The difference it lacks to be flush is about the same as it is out of alignment. I had another engine put in a while back and maybe the guy started to remove the pump pulley and decided that he did not need to. In theory I should be able to press the pulley back on to the correct location and should be golden. Thoughts?

[way2old]

I think the front of the pulley should be flush with the end of the shaft. If you can get it back in, you should be OK.

[shorod]

That's worth a try. Good luck!

-Rod

[fordfool]

Update: I cant get the installer tool to thread into the shaft. The threads must be stripped inside. Anyone happen to know what thread size it is off-hand? I can take the installer bolt tomorrow and match a nut on it.

[shorod]

If my universal pulley remover set can be trusted, the thread would be 3/8"-16. I don't have a similar car to go try it on though. It did work for a 1997 S-10 4.3L power steering pulley though.

-Rod

[fordfool]

Update: 3/8-16 it is. I ran a tap inside the shaft to clean up the threads. I was able to press the pulley on the shaft to the correct location. The belt was still trying to track off, but I noticed the tensioner pulley was not square with the others and replaced the assembly. So far all is perfect, wish me luck. Thanks Rod and Way2old, you guys do a great service here and people could not possibly thank you enough (there are others as well, no offense if I dont recognize you by name). Now, its time to turn my attention back to my O/D issue.

[shorod]

Good luck, and thank you for the follow-up post and kind words!

-Rod