Miata Pulley Wobble

[chuck schultz]

Aw, crap, I think this is my problem - http://www.miata.net/garage/LongNoseRepair/index.html

Would you trust this to a local, general mechanic, or should I trailer it to Steve or somebody else with experience with this type of car? If I do it locally, is there anything else I should have done at the same time, just to avoid going in there, again?

The car has 130,000, and if I'm going to spend enough to fix this right, would I be better off with a lower-mileage replacement?

I'm pretty aggravated that I didn't realize that this wasn't just a bad pulley, which would've been expensive enough.

[JohnW8]

To fix the keyway will require the crank to be removed. If you go to that level of repair you might as well rebuild the whole shebang. Finding a low mileage 1.6 would be an issue, but not impossible.

Have you removed the crank pulley to inspect? A wobbly pulley could be a damaged crank damper (the rubber part in the harmonic balancer/crank pulley)

Step #1 Remove radiator/ Seriously it make things easier
Step #2 Loosen 10mm bolts in crank pulley
Step#3 Remove belts
Step #4 Remove pulley for inspection
IF the pulley is FUBAR replace and see if it fixes things, If the pulley is fine then you must dig deeper by removing the timing belt to pulley the crank timing gear. You need a big friggin' breaker bar and a 21 mmsocket and a special mazda tool ( I got a homemade one you can borrow) That will get you to where you can check for the dreaded mangled crank keyway.

Have you considered a 1.8 upgrade? Tom Neel has a Race Engineering 1.6 that he's had for sale for 2+ years he might be willing to take a loss to move the engine. 125hp 1.6L

Lemmeknow if I can help Chuck

[chuck schultz]

I saw that motor on Tom's site, this morning. I couldn't do that for half the price.

I'm just wondering, right now, if I should let my local, generic guy go any further than checking the pulley, if that's not the problem.

[JohnW8]

It's fairly easy to get to and check at home without getting someones hourly rate going.

If you're not comfortable doing it, I'd take to a local shop without too much concern.

What does the pulley look like? 4 slot running around the perimeter of the pulley or 8?

http://www.miata.net/garage/crankshaft.html

[chuck schultz]

Crank's shot, and it only cost 20 bucks to find out.

So many choices - just get a different car and use this one for parts, replace this motor with a 1.8, 13B or a V-8, etc.

Now all I need is some cash. ;^)