UPDATE:
Both the dead and the good P/S pulleys have a lower outer rim, which is actually nice as it means the belt slips on and off easily for service, I guess.
Watching the P/S & A/C belt at idle it's tracking very squarely now.
But during this observation I noticed something else and ran a test to verify:
The Blue Lemon has a wobbling crank pulley.
FML.
How much it's wobbling I have not measured: I merely held a long thin piece of metal close to the rim of the crank pulley while the car idled, creeping closer and closer straight inboard until I got a steady ding-ding-ding of the pulley's outermost point clipping my metal at each revolution.
Dammit, Blue Lemon. This car is cursed. Hopefully the crank pulley and snout are OK and not damaged. With luck the same nimrod who screwed up the upper cover (it's crooked and doesn't seat under the valve cover overhang correctly, herp derp) just took an extra huff of paint and didn't put it on straight. If the crank snout is damaged I will probably give up on Protege5s completely and sell everything for parts.
i won't know until I tear into the timing belt & waterpump Saturday, rain or shine. So in the meantime I'm just going to wobble the car to work and back.
~~~
FYI, despite all the trouble it's caused and is continuing to cause, the Blue Lemon does have this one redeeming quality: it is the fastest and most powerful Protege5 I have ever driven.
When I test drove it the seller informed me that it's faster than his red P5 (he had both for sale but the red one is rusty LOL) and I felt right away that it's clearly faster than the white one my wife and I bought in 2002, which itself was faster than the yellow one we test drove first.
It appears bone stock except a Hot Air Intake which makes an awful hissing sound at idle, however there are shiny bolts here and there that make me think the motor has been swapped - possibly a JDM special?
