Deflection pulley
 

A repost, in brief, from the 4.6/4.8 thread as I think this forum gets more eyeballs.

I am troubleshooting my belt throwing 4.6 and wonder if anyone can confirm if you have, or don't have the small idler pulley attached to the power steering pump on the 4.6 motor. The part number for the pulley is 11287500560, and RealOEM refers to it as a "deflection pulley". I didn't have this on my 4.4 when I pulled it, so I didn't build my 4.6 with it. However, I lost the belt and am now wondering I screwed this up. I will say that the indy working on my X5 has owned and built several 540 based projects over the years and has seen this pulley on the 540. However, it was such a pain in the butt he said that on one of them he deleted it and drove the car with no problems for years. Neither he nor I can determine which, if any X5s have it. RealOEM refers to "automatic transmission" cars, but its anyone's guess if autos have, or don't have this pulley.


Thanks much - Brian

Too much coincidence. I think you need that pulley.

Seems like it to me too, but RealOEM is a bit of a head scratcher on this piece. It has something to do with having or not having the automatic transmission. The guy working on my car had this little pulley on a manual 540i project car some years ago.

Just spoke with the indy looking at my problem child. He ordered a 4.6 belt and compared it to the belt that failed and said that the failed one is longer than the 4.6 belt. That seems to point to the belt refresh kit I bought from Bimmerworld having the wrong belt in it. Everything else looked in order...pulleys, tensioner, etc.

New radiator has been ordered and a left rear axle and ABS sensors to go, and she'll be on the road again. I was getting the occasional ABS code and found some very worn wiring on the rear sensors from rubbing on something over the past 20 years. It's also ready for an oil change at 1100 miles on the break in oil, but I'll do that myself.