Matix engine belt change - need ideas

[Weather Spotter]

I am thinking about deleting my power steering and AC but I am unsure how to leave the alternator and water pump hooked up as they all run on the same belt.

Pic:


In the pic the pulleys are as follows:
top right is the alternator
the middle right is the water pump
the bottom right is the AC
the bottom center (left) us the main drive shaft pulley
center top is the tension pulley
and the far left is the PS pump

I would like to keep the alt and the water pump and I am unsure how to rought a belt to power them. Both the tension and water pump pulleys are driven off the back side of the belt.

the belt is ~3/4 to 1" wide and grooved on one side and smooth on the other. Pulleys are smooth for the smooth side of the belt and grooved for the grooved side.

Once I get a routing path/ system figured out I was planning on taking a string and measuring the length and seeing if a auto parts store has the right size/ try a few and find the right one.

Ideas?

[Daox]

I'd leave the A/C pump in place. It doesn't suck up any noticable amount of power if not in use. Its not worth removing for weight reasons. Then, just yank the PS pump and put an idler in its place. You could still run the same size belt. KISS!

[Weather Spotter]

great idea Daox!

Where sells pulleys and mounting hardware? Mc-master might but I am unsure about sizing.

[Frank Lee]

Looks like if you went oversize on the alt pulley and/or remounted it higher up, you could delete the power steering, a/c, and tensioner pulleys just like I did on my Tempo, but that might be more engineering than you care to take on.

[Weather Spotter]

just a thought, could I just get a shorter belt and route it without the pump?

my local auto parts place does not have and idler pulley, I might have to measure it and look online for one.

[Daox]

I assume you mean without the power steering pump? If you do that you loose the functionality of the tensioner.

I'm pretty sure the matrix/corolla of that generation never came without PS. So, you might have to make your own idler. Just find an idler that has the same number of ribs as your belt and find a way to mount it up. Not super easy, but it shouldn't be horribly hard.

[ksa8907]

smaller belt, under the water pump, over the alt, under the crank and a/c. though you won't get a tensioner.

or keep it as is and use a different pully for the p/s that has a bearing in the middle so it will spin on the shaft rather than run the pump.

[Weather Spotter]

What about keeping the tensioner in but not the ps pump? From the diagram it looks possible, the idler will have the wrong side of the belt but still should work.

[Daox]

The tensioner is probably spring loaded to move to the right. If you run the belt on the left side it has just turned into an idler, and then you have no way to adjust the belt tension.

[oil pan 4]

You can get all kinds of idler pullies from summit, the auto parts stores might have them too. Depending on the size of the pully you may need a different size belt.
The auto parts stores carry all different sizes of belts. I am not sure what the smallest and largest size belt is but it seems like they have every size inbetween in 1cm increments.
I reworked my accessories 3 times so far and I never had any trouble finding a belt that would fit.

By any chance did you read my post about the constant 2-2.5hp that power steering systems suck down?
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ng-1100-5.html

I need 35 horsepower to push my truck down the road. Cars should need far less, so a 2 horsepower saving deletion should get you a lot more bang for your buck.
I have read that the saving is so much that some small 4-cylinder cars suffer surging idle after the P/S is unhooked.