Just got done doing the waterpump on my 87 dakota. Has the 3.9l v6. I did this job about a year ago and I guess I didn't get the seal good enough because it had a small leak in the top right corner but I didn't run into this issue.

The air pump pulley is sticking out not allowing me to put the belt on properly. The P/S pulley which used the same pulleys (crank and waterpump) is fine. All other belts are fine. I triple checked everything and can't see a problem so I'm really lost here and it's driving me nuts.


This is the left side of the air pump bracket where it is bolted to the engine looking from the front of the motor. The only thing I can imagine that would cause an alignment issue was if the small bracket that goes betweenn the air pump bracket and the p/s bracket was on wrong but I'm sure it is on right. There is a small rubber washer that's on the p/s bracket where the bottom bolt of the air pump bracket goes through. The spacer has a recession that is matched to it.

Any ideas?

 

Did you remove the pulley from the air pump when you did the job? Did you put it back on the right way? Sorry if that sounds obvious, but I've seen people put them on backwards and have the same problem.

 

Nope just loosened the pump, removed the belt and removed the 2 bolts going through the waterpump.

 

the spacer that goes on where the two bolts are at the bottom of the bracket can only got on 1 way. not sure if you put it on right but i know when i did the one on my old 91 motor i put it on the wrong way and had that problem.

not sure if you checked it but its a start.

 

Take the belt off. Do you really need that air pump?

 

If you take off the belt, the exhaust will eventually burn through the check valves and either burn off the hose (BIG exhaust leak) or ruin the pump. And if the OP has to undergo any kind of regular inspection, he will need that pump.

 

that and the cat will go bad pretty quickly.