Opening the hood to work on something else, I noticed the serpentine belt is now missing the back rib's worth of belt. The belt appears to be in all the right places but on the power steering pump pulley it is back one rib (therefore where I think it sliced the back rib off the belt).

The strange thing is that it looks like the pulley is now one ribs worth forward of all the other pulleys/idlers. To check with the belt still on I loosened the tension and moved the belt forward on the pulley and the belt angles to get back to the idler. With the belt removed it really looks like the pulley is one ribs worth forward. I know there is probably some "optical" effects of trying to look at the alignment but this seems pretty definite.

Also, I'm not sure how stiff/free the pulley on the pump should turn. For instance the alt pulley spins but feels heavy, idlers free spin, but my ps pulley you have to turn it. Is that normal?

Thanks for the help

 

Remove the belt and pull on the pulley. Yank on it. If it comes out with part of the shaft, you need a new PS pump.

 

Tried yanking on it hard enough to rock the truck with no give... May just have to bite the bullet and get a new one any way as it seems to be the only possible explanation.

 

Oh, this one is easy.
The pulley on the PS pump is back wards.

Take it off.
Turn it over and put it back on.

Like flipping a pancake.

If on backwards, the belt will run about a ridge crooked.

 

And don't make the 10mm bolts too tight.
You'll break the ears off of the PS pump.
Then you'll need to get a new pump for sure

Did that to a new pump.
And had to get yet another new pump.

 

jfall - thank you for the two notes

I double checked and actually took the pulley off to confirm that it is on the right way. If I flip it, then it ends up being 2 ribs too far forward.

Does anyone know what the gap dimension should be between the face of the pump and the back of the pulley mounting plate? If I knew that I could check if the shaft has "walked" out of the pump...

 

can you get any type of straight edge in there to see what it will take for them to line up?

 

Ordered a new pump and compared. The shaft on the old pump had shifted out about 1/8 inch (one rib worth). For curiousity sake I tried pulling it out and pushing it in but it wouldn't move.

Installed new pump and the pulley aligned perfectly.

Write this one up to "strange pump shaft behaviour"....

Paul

 

Interesting.
Glad you figured it out.

Our Discovery I had the pulley backwards from the factory.
It was always a rib off.

I did notice the same and flipped it over and problem over.

Glad you got that fixed!

 

I am having this happen to mine...

Today the serp back rib came off and shredded...

My pulley is not lined up anymore it is a rib too far forward.

I tapped it with a hammer and the shaft went back inside and lined up with the rest of the pulleys.

I need a new pump and so (do/did) you.

Also...the pulley is stamped "FRONT" on the front.