First off thanks to agranger for the awesome walk through on servicing the fluid. That will make it a lot easier. so as you may have guessed I'm about to undergo the servicing of the blower next week. I just have a few questions regaurding pulley. while it's off I'm going to do the 15% down size so since I'm going to have the supercharger out do I need a special puller or will any old pulley puller work. Second... do I need any special tools to put the new one on. Third... Which one should I do ( I was leaning towards the craven or alta) and last can anyone supply me with the part # for the correct size belt for the smallwe pulley? Thanks ahead of time guys. -R.
Belt is a Gates K060535 or equivalent. Pulley brand, I'm biased, of the 2 mentioned I would go with a Craven Speed. Many of the M/A sponsors have a kit that includes the pulley and belt. I'd also think about replacing the plugs with one range colder too.
I was going to say "I went with the Alta and it was fine", but Way's package is pretty complete and priced pretty well, and I believe his pulley is as easy to install/align as the ALta (a no brainer). Do NOT forget that tensioner strap. Should your belt ever fail, that strap prevents the pulleys (crank and tensioner) from coming together, damaging both and requiring expensive replacement. Note that even though having a pulley means the belt will theoretically fail slightly faster, those belts don't fail all that often - the problem is, if they DO fail, do you want it to be a simple $25-35 belt and 30 minutes, or several hundred dollars of pulleys and tensioner and hours of labor? You will need the proper pulley puller to remove the old one without damage. Most Mini clubs can hook you up, and since you're in my home town of PITTSBURGH (for cryin' out loud!) get ahold of SteveM at Schade Auto, happens to be the VP of our PittStopMINI Club! We do pulley installs at Garage Days... PM or email for more info... PM'd you