New Crank shaft pulley and noisy PS/AC belt tensioner pulley

[Braddy40]

As I was investigating the continuing noise being produced from the bearings of my newly purchased PS tensioner I noticed a lot of side to side movement in the Alt belt.
It was suggested by a mechanic that it may be the crank shaft pulley damaged or loose even though there didn't seem to be any movement in any of the pulleys. I checked the Crank shaft pulley for tension but it wasn't loose.
I have just purchased a new Crank shaft pulley from Camskill, (who kindly have me a £6 discount for being a Club VR4 member), and was surprised by how solid and strong the item was, making me wonder how this could possibly be damaged. When I ordered the item I spoke to someone for advice in Camskill and they mentioned the rubber failing in the pulley and that it is quite a common fault. Does this sound right as when I received the item is looks like one solid cast piece. Is there rubber inside connecting two pieces?
And is there such a thing as a quiet PS tensioner pulley as I have owned 2 Galants and now have a Legnum which have all suffered with the same bearings noise? Thanks!

[exevoowner]

The crankshaft pulley is a 2 peice item with a rubber harmoic damper fitted the rubber does fail in time which is why they need changing as for ps tensioner there will be some movment as for noise it should be smooth and noise free

[Davezj]

There should be no noise from the ps tentioner pulley. Mine have always been quite.

You will find that even in a new tentioner pulley if you wiggle it frm side to side there is a little click, click, but is normal as every new tentioner I have had, has done this. And this includes the ones from cam skill.

The crack pulley looks solid but if you look closely between the two pulley section there is a small black rubber line. This is the rubber bit the usually fails.
The pulley is made I two parts I think and is joined by this rubber section it is designed to be a vibration damper.
When the pulley is old and starts to fail this rubber breaks down and the two parts of the pulley can completely come apart, but I have not seen or heard of the actually happening on a car. So basically the crank pullies can wobble about which causes vibration in the engine and pulley systems which can move the tensioner pulleies in ways they were not designed to do causing noise.

The best way to check this is run the engine and watch the crack pulley if there is any wobble on the pulley then it is likely the rubber is failing and the pulley need to be replaced.

You can get aftermarket light weight all one piece alloy crank pullies, but they have no vibration damping built into them. I don't know how this effect thing vibration wise as I have never tried one. But me personally I would do what you have done and go down the OEM replacement route. Once you have fitted the new crack pulley. The tentioner pulley should be almost silent. Complained to the rest of the engine noise.

By the way you need to ensure the crack pulley is done up tight, they is probaly a torque setting in the jap or uk spec manual for it. If you don't do it up tight enough, it will come loose and it will throw the belts off and slice em up and scare the crap out of you when it does it.

I speek from experience. Just tightening the crack pulley against the resistance of the engine turning is not good enough and should not be done. you have to lock the pulley in place via the two holes provided in the face of the pulley to be able to do the bolt up to the required tightness. You should not do the bolt up useing the cam belt to stop the pulley turning, it is not a good idea, you will be compressing the hidraulic when you tighten the bolt, and when you release the pressure on the bolt the cam belt will be slack until the hydraulic tentioner takes up the slack in the belt again and you could cause the cam pullies to jump a tooth or two on the cam belt which is not a good thing to do.

Do The bolt up properly.
I think I just got a bar with a bolt sticking out of it that fitted into one of the holes in the face of the crank pulley and braced this bar against the ground, so as I turned the bolt the pulley tried to turn and was forcing the bar into the ground. Which it obviously could not do so it stopped the pulley from turning. You can buy special tools to lock the crack pulley in place but I found the bar worked perfectly for me.

This last bit is just a word of warning.

[Braddy40]

Thanks for all the advice! I hope to get it all sorted Tuesday and certainly make sure it is tightened properly.
The person I spoke to from Camskill did mention that they had a call from a customer asking for a new Crank shaft pulley and a new garage door as I guess the pulley had separated or came loose!