Idler pulley behind water pump?? Serviceable Bearing?

[VTPSD]

 I have a 1991 ecodiesel that I am currently putting a ton of miles on and loving it.

I have this loud annoying clattering sound at certain rpms, mostly at idle. I thought it was coming from the waterpump or PS pump area. I took off belts and tried to isolate it, and I am 90% sure the noise is coming from the idler pulley that is coaxial with the waterpump drive pulley. It is a bit loose, and seems like it has a bad bearing.  Has anyone repaired these before? Seems like i should be able to replace the bearing in there, but not sure. I also have read people just tach weld the two pulleys together, but I am not to sure I want to do that. Would prefer to get a new bearing in there.

 Here is a pic of the setup i found on the web, ignore the 1 and 2. The idler pulley in question is in the top right hand corner, behind the water pump drive pulley.


Usually I can figure out this stuff from searching around the net, but this one has me a bit baffled. Is this a rare setup, I.E. diesel with AC only? Thanks in advance for any clues. Forgive me, I am pretty new to VW's.

[CRSMP5]

its not uncommon... its a "slipper" pully.. when vw went to its silly design.. ohhh crap broke ps belt... but ac still on... drive till cooked.. fail... its not even a bearing.. its like clutch disk stuff...

i myself look for the solid kind.. they exist.. they went back to a 2 pully ps set up on late b3... making the wp 1 piece again.. like 92 16v.. and 87-88 they started that design...

mk3 serp set up no longer used... back to 3 pully ps... like i said.. odd they went to 2 from 3 back to 3...

[TylerDurden]

^^^ Agree ^^^

You can still get the slipper version retail, but they are inferior to the solid version. I'd post a WTB for a solid.

[VTPSD]

Interesting...and a bit strange...is the solid pulley a similar shape, I.E. same pulley diameters as the two-peice? Is there any reason I could not tack weld the two togeather and make it a solid pulley?

[VTPSD]

thinking about it further, I could only weld the two together if I was to do away with my power steering belt. I was actually considering trying to run without PS because the pump is a bit noisy, and I don't drive the car in town much. Might gain another .001mpg that way 

[bajacalal]

DO IT!

Power steering is totally unnecessary on the mk2 cars. They're so light you won't really notice a difference, unless you're running really fat tires.

Now, if you were to delete the p/s from your pickup, it would be absolutely atrocious to drive.

[VTPSD]

DO IT!

Power steering is totally unnecessary on the mk2 cars. They're so light you won't really notice a difference, unless you're running really fat tires.

Now, if you were to delete the p/s from your pickup, it would be absolutely atrocious to drive.

if I tried to drive the truck with no ps I would drive straight off the first bend! 

I think I will give that a go, I will leave the ps pump in place in case I want to go back. I like the idea of having one less thing to go wrong as well. Have a 2500 mile road trip coming up in june, and don't want to have to stop to make repairs on the old girl.
I think the only trick will be making sure I get the pulleys straight to each other so there isn't a wobble. Is there any chance that having the larger pulley driving the water pump will have it underdriven, and turn to slow?
Perhaps I am overthinking it.

[bbob203]

loop your lines together to keep some fluid in the rack for lube purposes. I drove one like this over a year and then passed off the loop to my buddy when I swapped in a full manual rack. it feels great both ways. frees up a lot of junk in your bay to.

[VTPSD]

well i welded the idler pulley to its hub and got rid of the outer power steering drive pulley. I tried to get it somewhat balanced using a lawn mower balencer 
what a strange setup this thing is, i havent seen anything like it before. Looked like it was pretty worn








I am not terribly satisfied with my results, I have a very slight wobble that I could see when I spun it by hand. With it all up and running it seems ok, the belt resonates a bit at different rpm, but I think it did that same thing before. Makes me a bit uneasy to think about it wobbling a bit. Perhaps I should try to get my hands on a solid pulley. I found a part number for the solid pulley, but it appears to be NLA. Does anyone know where to look for one of these pulleys?

[VTPSD]

is this the pulley I am after?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VW-Mk2-MK3-B3-B4-Golf-Jetta-Passat-Corrado-Water-Pump-Pulley-1993-2002-/380521584482?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item5898da9762&vxp=mtr

[TylerDurden]

Methinks that's for a Corrado.

You might check for 068121031.

http://www.jimellisvwparts.com/products/Volkswagen-VW/1992/Jetta16L-TD/For-vehicles-without-v-belt-pulley-power-steering/5136890/068121031K.html

[bbob203]

I think I have the ond you need.

[vanbcguy]

I had one of those things in Jezebel.  What a PITA.

I just swapped out all the pulleys a month or two ago with a set off a car that didn't use that stupid rattly thing.  A side bonus is I can change my belts WAY more easily now than I could before.  The setup I am using now has the PS belt run completely independently of the water pump (the water pump has a single pulley).  Much easier to deal with.