Pulley Alignment? Crank pulley sits too far in!

[drhill]

The crank pulley on my 84 wagon seems to sit noticeably too far in - as in close to the motor compared to all the other pulleys. I have an aftermarket balancer on it (pioneer if I remember correctly) and it has multiple spacer configurations for multiple applications. Only using all of the bolt spacers gets it even remotely close to lineup so I'm sure I have it correct on that front.

Any idea why it might be off? Probably off a 1/4 to 1/8 inch? Enough that it started th shred the alternator and P/S belt and it completely shredded and threw the AC belt while I was WOT testing the turbo tune last night

Thanks for the help!!

[87Topaz]

Wonder if it is REALLY made to fit that car? Some aftermarket parts try to be all things to all people and "generally" fit multiple vehicles but few to none exactly.

[drhill]

Wonder if it is REALLY made to fit that car? Some aftermarket parts try to be all things to all people and "generally" fit multiple vehicles but few to none exactly.

I wonder about that myself. It's so hard for me to see a pulley misalignment visually - I just went and looked again. I know they're off but the main way I can is the aftermath of 10 to 12 WOT runs, ac belt shredded and alt belt lost a rib!

[87gtVIC]

We need videos of this beast.

[gadget73]

Can't say I've ever seen a replacement balancer that came with or required spacers in order to fit. That should be the same unit that they ran from the early 80s through the mid 1990s at least. Are you using the stock crank pulley as well? The Mustang ones have a different offset than the stock 2 belt unit did. Same with the water pump pulley, though the Mustang one has no grooves so its fairly obviously not the same as the stock piece.

I think I'd be swapping that for a direct replacement balancer that doesn't need any spacers or adapters.

[drhill]

Can't say I've ever seen a replacement balancer that came with or required spacers in order to fit. That should be the same unit that they ran from the early 80s through the mid 1990s at least. Are you using the stock crank pulley as well? The Mustang ones have a different offset than the stock 2 belt unit did. Same with the water pump pulley, though the Mustang one has no grooves so its fairly obviously not the same as the stock piece.

I think I'd be swapping that for a direct replacement balancer that doesn't need any spacers or adapters.

Yep - I think that is the answer. OEM replacement balancer it is.

[drhill]

We need videos of this beast.

Ha Ha - yes, I'll post 'em up once I finish getting it tuned..., it's a mild build, ported e7's stock ho cam with 1.7 rockers, explorer intake and an old 80's cartech turbo kit that a modded to work in the box engine bay. I needed power and mpg's so I kept the 3.08 gears. It's blowing out the spark right now....it's just 6lbs of boost or so but that is enough I guess. I've had a number of supercharged mustangs and they all did the same thing without a tight plug gap!