So I’ve got a 1990 B2600i 4x4 which is a pretty uncommon vehicle to see nowadays and they also never sold that many of them new.
It’s a pretty solid little truck that I’ve put a good chunk of time and labor in but every once in a while something breaks that requires a good deal of sleuthing and parts hunting to fix.
The engine in this guy is a Mazda built fuel injected 2.6 that shares almost no parts with the Mitsubishi 2.6 it replaced and this engine was only used in the B2600i (89-93) and some trims of the MPV over a similar time frame.
I took it to get inspected a couple weeks ago and the line was already crazy long and I got there 4 minutes after they opened so I turned around and went back home. About halfway there the steering got heavy, really heavy. I realized the power steering pump was no longer working. First thought is that I lost a belt and couldn’t remember if it was a serpentine or V belt setup right then so I kept an eagle eye on the gauges checking for batt and temp indicators.
Home was about 5 miles away so I figured I’d risk it and go for broke as it was still charging so it seems I only lost one belt. Man is it a lot harder than I remember to wrestle a vehicle with busted power steering, especially from a stop!
So I got home and popped the hood and was greeted with the shredded remains of the power steering belt. Took a trip to Oreilly’s for belts a couple days later and got all three (PS, Alternator and A/C). Under $20 for all belts so not bad at all.
Other things took priority and since this is a third vehicle it wasn’t pressing. Last night I decided to crack it open and replace the belts. Expecting an hour to get all three done I got started.
The first few minutes were spent both noting routing of belts and looking for tensioners or other leverage points and came up short with the latter. Back inside for some googling and looking through the parts manual.
This is the tensioner/idler pulley for the Power Steering belt, it has a bad bearing so I had to get unbolted but also lets me show you the strange to me design. The system instead of being spring loaded uses a nut and bolt which moves the pulley up and down to increase or decrease tension. The system works pretty well and is decently easy to set but is not one I’ve ever seen before.
Well next comes the parts hunting and I can’t find the pulley anywhere locally so I have to order it and it won’t show up until next week. The Mazda sits idle a bit longer now but hopefully this’ll put her back in fighting form.
The Mazda has been a pretty neat little pickup but there have been several things like this that just seem strange and parts can be hard to find along with very little information on it out there. I’m feeling like it’s nearing time to sell it and buy a Toyota...