Just wanted to update this thread. I pulled the air pump today and replaced it w/ a used one from eBay ($65).
I could barely even turn the pulley by hand when I got it out.
Thanks JohnM for telling me to take care of it sooner rather than later! It was damned close to taking out the fan belt. (I
thought my power steering was getting tough at slow speed...
).
I decided to pull the old pump apart to see how the damn thing works and see what the feasibility of gutting one so you could pass visual inspection, keep the original belt, and not have to worry about the damn thing.
Pics of guts:
Talk about over-engineered!
Sheesh... The impellers look like something out of Star Wars!
As far as the feasibility of gutting it: It seems possible. You'd just have to pull out the impellers w/ their bearings. I tried to get the drum out to inspect the clutch system, but the nut on the end of the shaft (mid-pulley) was frozen (I broke my 6mm allen rachet
).
But that wasn't too much of a concern on mine, as the internal bearing weren't my issue; the pulley bearings were the problem.