Serpentine Belt Tensioner
 

First of all, is it "legal" to remove the smog pump? Mines old and I don't want it to lock up on me and cut the belt. I'd rather just remove it instead of replace it. I can save money and weight that way. Maybe get 1/2 - 1 more hp too? I will remove it if I can pass the safety inspection that this state has.

I'm also going to remove the AC pump and lines and that radiator looking thing on the front of the car and the power steering and replace it with a manual rack off an '84. The AC leaked out all it's freon, and I don't have nor do I want to spend the money to get more freon and replace the part that leaked it out.

Now I have 2 choices. Either get one of those bracket's for ~$40 that moves my tensioner pulley to the other side, or try and either make or find a tensioner pulley that looks just like the stock one, but it pulls the belt up instead of pushes it down.

Can the stock pully be modified to do this? If so, how?

Is there some other car out there that has a pulley of this type from the factory?

And most important, will I have to use a different water pump since it will be spun in the other direction with the belt wrapped around it like this?

Look on page 149 in the March issue of Muscle Mustangs and Fast Fords for an example of what I'm talking about.

Any info on this will be greatly appericated.

Thanks.

If I pull my smog pump, or if I change over to a carburator instead of EFI, will I be able to get one of these stuck on my windshield every year?

http://www.deq.state.ok.us/air1/fctsht98/Image29.jpg

"part of the annual vehicle safety inspection, emission systems are visually checked to ensure the emission components are properly installed and functioning. Vehicles registered to individuals living in the Oklahoma City and Tulsa metropolitan areas are subject to this inspection"

Or just stay with EFI and run the smog pump?

Does anyone know what is required, or know of a page that has all the details on what it takes to pass the inspection?

Thanks for any help.

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I got that pic and paragraph from here - http://www.deq.state.ok.us/air1/fctsht98/proj98.html

Heres a little bit of info F.Y.I
I have a 70.5 inch belt and i bypassed the smog(air) pump and the powersteering. I left the A/C because it gets to be 105 deg. plus here in the dead of summer.
This belt works perfectly with the stock tensioner in the stock position.
BTW having no p/s really blows with the stock steering rack. I read ur post about converting to a 84 manual rack and a reply to that about using a 79 manual rack. Will either of these fit and will this improve my ease of steering.
Thanks.

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89 5.0 GT White w/Blue Racing Stripes
K&N, 73mm Mass Air, Ported and Polished Stock Heads, E303 Cam, MAC equal Length Headers, Off Road H-Pipe, Borla Mufflers, Sway Bars, Strut Tower, Subframe Connectors, Eibach, Koni Adjustables, Pony 5 Stars, 1000 Watt JL Audio System

It is possible to reverse the tension on the stock tensioner. I'm not sure which site it is, but one of the stang sites has a full detailed explanation on how to do it, complete with pics.

I've looked and looked, and I cannot find that site. Can you find a link to it?

If not, I'm going to have to get this $40 bracket...
http://www.marchperf.com/images/ford5.JPG

I'd much rather be able to reverse my stock pulley and save some money.

Thanks.

Ill take the rest of the engine.

Hold on to that $40. I think I saved the link,or maybe even the file. I take a look and send it to you.

Well, how good are you with instructions. I found the file, but dummy me saved it as an E-file, so I don't have any pics, but I do have the instructions on how to reverse it. The guy that had the site is Mark Krafjack. You might be able to find him on one of the sites and get the pics from him. Otherwise, send my your e-mail and I'll send you the instructions.

My understanding of emission requirements is that it must meet the year in which the engine was manufactured--not the year of the car. Safety requirements are based on the year on which the car was manufactured. Therefore I would presume that removing the smog pump would affect your ability to acquire the annual emission sticker. Remove the smog pump amd pay for an emission test but be sure to save the pump in case. As for the ps issue just removing the belt still requires effort to 'push' the fluid. A strictly manual rack would require less resistance to move. Water pumps have impellors that are designed to spin in one direction. Spinning in the 'wrong' direction will effectively reduce the cooling ability on a warm day.

Thanks buddha. Please send those instructions to this email address:

rtz549@hotmail.com

I'm going to get a manual rack and remove the AC pump along with it so this will work out great.

I'll just keep the smog pump for now..

I removed my smog pump and A/C. I running stock pulleys. I used the Ford Racing A/c Eliminator Kit I think the part # is m-8511-A50. It moves the power steering up where the A/C was. I wouldn't lose the power steering if I was you. It doesn't cost much HP. My belt ended up being 71.5" Just my .02.

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John Welch
86 GT, 3.73's, H-pipe, No smog pump, pulleys, K&N, and still going.

Ask and you get! All the info should be in my sig.

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88LX 5.0 5spd 1 5/8" shorty headers, Off road H-pipe, Race magnum bullets, K&N, ASP 3" Crank pulley, 3.73's, ram air, air bag, skinnies, battery in the hatch, 75hp NOS Dry Kit, Explorer intake, Pro 50 shifter.

13.07@104 N/A
8.10@84 N/A 1/8th
??.??@??? on the juice
7.93@87 N2O 1/8th "no traction"
http://www.angelfire.com/ns/PurgingPony/50mainpage.html

Thanks!

Well PurgingPony, I did it. I'll post a pic or 2 of it as soon as I get ahold of a digital camera.

Thanks for the info.

I want my car too look like this:
http://www.zing.com/picture/p9750776...3/ff25d901.jpg

I'm a minimalist when it comes to cars and I appreciate and admire the simplicity.

I want to get the most from the least.

Make sure that if you remove your smog pump you also take off your cats because the unburnt hydrocarbons will burn in the cat and melt the insides and probably plug them. I have a FMS smog pump idler and it works great and my car is up in the air ready to get the old single exhaust ripped off for my new exhaust. No it's not legal and unfortunately ford's stragegy for passing emissions tests is to rely on catalytic converters so if you're missing the air pump and cats it's almost garaunteed that you'll fail. I took my air pump apart and if you want to know a cheap alternative to a pulley it's that you can take out the blades on the inside of the pump and the pump will spin freely without the blades causing drag by rubbing against the housing and moving air around, and it shouldn't be too hard to make a block off plate on where the air pump hose mounting plate was so stuff doesn't get inside. Just some ideas

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'84 Mustang 5.0 T5, FMS aluminum radiator & 180* thermostat, 1 5/8 shortys/2.5" duals, '88 GT tail lights and wheels, Holley 4160 4 BBL, smog pump idler, more coming soon