zerMATT951

That's definitely worth looking at. The first gear/pulley to be installed has a flat side and a dished side. The flat side needs to go on first - facing and contacting the washer that compresses the o-ring into the oil pump drive gear. If it was installed the opposite direction, that dish could cause poor contact with the washer & gear, and possibly even cause the lip of the pulley to contact the block.

tsmith944

i noticed today that the power steering pulley wobbled pretty badly left to right today while cranking the engine over. when i took it apart i noticed the crank bolt conical washer was offset and almost all the way to one side of the PS pulley.

if that is the lower belt pulley you are talking about, i was going to remove the PS pulley and put everything back together without it, just using the crank conical washer and torque it up to see if the oil pump spins at all and bulds pressure, regardless if the PS pulley is out of alignment. if so i can reinstall the PS pulley and figure a way to align the PS pulley to tighten in the center.

while i believed it was an electrical issue due to the onslaught of lights on the dash, it seemed coincidental seeing that I barely disrupted any wires while doing the water pump job.

ill just have to see when i put it all back together tomorrow minus 1 PS pulley and let you know.

thanks so far, this has been a headache and i miss driving my own car. even if it is black on black on the hottest of the summer days w/o AC.

tsmith944

is the first sprocket your talking about the timing belt sprocket on the crank?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Porsc...item5199d2631f

if so, in the picture, the dished side is facing up and the flat side is facing down?

if it is, i do have the flat side facing the engine block. i do see a small gap between the crank gear and the block (even though the rear timing cover is in between them a bit)

i think the PS pulley having being torqued offset has made it not fit on the crank properly anymore hence the pulleys and cranks are being torqued flush against the block. the hole in the PS pulley is a shy smaller due to pinched metal so it wont go on the crank at all. when i put it back on originally i must have not had it on the crank somehow and torqued it anyway.

i ordered a new one and will try again, hopefully this will do the trick. that small gap i talked about probably is due to the crank bolt putting all its torque on the PS pulley and none on the pulleys and gears. fingers crossed.

JohnKoaWood

The dished washer is dished because when all is assembled and torqued correctly the end of the crank sits in the dished portion of the washer, wth all the pulleys clamped between the washer and oil pump, and centered on the crank... this stackup is critical for proper pump opperation...

hence your low / no oil pressure problem..

F18Rep

This is a very common assembly problem - I've seen it three times and even did it once myself, ya have to get the belt cog on first and seated, then bring in the other stuff. If you choose to not use the PS pulley, I'm thinking you will need a machine washer or something to take its place in the stack (I read that here - I always have kept the pulley)...Bruce

tsmith944

thats exactly what it was! i had to modify the pinched metal PS pulley to go back on the crank, but after getting it on straight, torquing it, and putting everything back together, i started the car and 2 seconds later the pressure build to just under 5 and all those other lights went away.

i guess the way the wiring is setup that if the oil pressure light is on, those other lights are triggered. confused me but glad to see all is normal again.

thanks to all who posted! hopefully this will help anyone else who comes across this in the future.

zerMATT951

You were using a modified PS drive pulley this whole time? That would have been great information to know as we all tried to figure this problem out. That entire assembly was engineered to work as a set, and mixing in aftermarket parts can definitely cause issues.