Hello all,

I have been installing my power steering and I came to the point where I remove the old crank pulley and replace it with a double row.  When I removed the old one I was surprised to see that the back side of the pulley really wore a larger hole in the cover.  The replacement pulley will not even seat without hitting the cover.  I know that the last owner said that the head was replaced but when I was talking to a guy at petroworks he said that the pulley rubbing was very common.  I'm having a hard time swallowing that statement.  I was wondering if during the head replacement something like a spacer(washer) was left out behind the lower cog that would have move it towards the front and given the pulley more space between the back of the pulley and the front of the cover.  Any thoughts?

The photos are of the cover wear, the wear pattern on back of stock pulley and the contact with the new pulley and the pulley sill has about a 1/16" to go before it's seated.

Thanks.

Probably wouldnt hurt to replace the timing belt cover, how old is the timing belt, might as well get at that as well if you are close.

The timing belt cover is not distorted so that it sticks out more.  If I put a new one on the same thing should happen to it.  The timing belt does not even have 500 miles on it since the head replacement.

In my experience it is common. I had a zook with about 60,000 miles on it, was all original and had this problem. I've seen it on 16v motors also.

I guess you're going to have take a really large gulp of water and wash it down

It is very common - and distortion of the cover is also very common - what I believe happens is the "foam rubber gasket" that sits between the edge of the cover and the block absorbs oil & swells forcing the cover outwards.  No there's no washer between the two pulleys.

OK so it's an ugly reality I'm facing.  I just had more engineering confidence in these things than that.  Well,  this being the case I can trace the outline of the pulley and just remove the material in the way with a rotozip or I can look for replacements.  Being first inclined to buy a replacement I could not help but notice a 95% to 5% ratio of 88.5 and up covers out there for sale vs. 86-88 covers.  Any recommendations on a good place (read inexpensive) to purchase these?

Thanks all for the responses.

PetroWorks has the cover for the 1.3 engine for $23.99. That's about the best price you'll find....

OK so it's an ugly reality I'm facing.  I just had more engineering confidence in these things than that.  Well,  this being the case I can trace the outline of the pulley and just remove the material in the way with a rotozip or I can look for replacements.  Being first inclined to buy a replacement I could not help but notice a 95% to 5% ratio of 88.5 and up covers out there for sale vs. 86-88 covers.  Any recommendations on a good place (read inexpensive) to purchase these?

Thanks all for the responses.

Napa sells the covers for $20+ but you need to by the gasket seperate. Summit has one that's very cheap and comes with a gasket, it's listed for 88.5 and up but I've heard from people who have baught it that it fits 86-88 as well and there is no difference.

Both of my motors looked the same.  Also one had distorted to the point that the belt had rubbed through.  A new cover is the fix.  As far as the engineering,  This is really nothing more than a dust cover.  The only things in there are a couple of seals and the timing belt and idler. 

My SideTracker is on it's second cover. Damned things just dont' last. The OEM lasted 203,000 miles, the second..who knows.

Petroworks does not have 2 different covers for 86-88 and 88+  They only sell one cover and they were going to charge me $16 dollars to mail it to me in PA.  I found the cover on Amazon.com for less than $20 and free shipping.  I would like to support the smaller companies but the shipping charge for the cover is out of line for regular snail mail.

First - I'd like to say thanks to the guys who provided the information that Dorman make a replacement and that it can be bought through Amazon - that scrap of information has been very helpful ...

The Dorman 635-702 is a replacement for OEM part number 11390-82010, which is the belt cover for the 88+ Samurai 1.3 SOHC
The Dorman 635-700 is a replacement for OEM part number 11390-60A11, which is the belt cover for the 8V 1.6