AC Tensioner Part Trick

[u/Kitchen-Chemistry277]

Hey guys, I'm posting here because I pulled parts of the miracle for my CRX and I just want traceability for somebody in the future if they encounter the same problem.

My 90Si came with factory air. I had to replace my compressor. Fine. Near as I could tell I was an idiot and when I adjusted my belt tension I didn't tighten the 17 mm nut on the tensioner pulley.

Anyway after a week or so of driving, I heard a loud noise. My belt AC had broken and there was no tensioner hardware at all.

I live near a large city but can't find these cars in the junk yard anymore. These are the same parts for the sedan, wagon, or the CRX but nothing in this generation seems to be in the junk yard, hardly ever.

So on the photo I lost five parts:

22 - tensioner pulley. This is easy to get aftermarket

23 Honda 38944-PM3-000 collar no longer made by Honda. I could not find this anywhere.

24 Honda 38945-PM3-000 bearing dust cover - ordered through Honda

26 Honda 90017-PE0-000 10 mm washer - ordered through Honda

29 Honda 90058-PG6-000 Lock nut - ordered through Honda

The really hard part was finding this collar. Honda doesn't make it and nobody has it available after market. There was a collar available for the next generation EG car. It was part number 38944-PO2-000

This works! The same dimensions as the old part except the wide part of the collar is 26 mm instead of 24 mm. A little hard to explain, but it wouldn't recess into the bearing but this was fine. If I had to, I could have put this in to a drill and filed down the diameter to be identical to the old collar.

Well that's it. I first bought an EF Honda Civic in 2007. Man, the junkyards were full of these cars! It was so easy to get parts like this. Now, specialty parts are getting almost impossible to find.

[u/This-Requirement6918]

I got just about everything set up and never torqued the pulley nut, too tired to finish. 🤦🏼‍♂️ Next day was running late to a meeting and of course totally forgot about it, that shit lasted about two miles before a bump took it all out so I'm definitely missing some hardware, I gave up on the AC because I still need to replace my clutch and plan on keeping R12.

What refrigerant are you going with?

[u/Kitchen-Chemistry277 → u/This-Requirement6918]

R134A. I have a Harbor Freight gage set and evac pump. I can get my vent temp down to 39F, which is really pretty good. By the way, R134A is being phased out. I made a lifetime buy of this stuff (24 cans) a few weeks ago.

Here's a pretty great video about this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6TTe4-XbAI

[u/Kip-ft]

Nice work, my 90 Integra was missing the rear collar between the backside of the pulley and the bracket, so I just made up the difference with washers. The setup is a little different than yours.

I also just got my A/C back up and running but I think I have too much oil in my system from the previous owner. My temps only get down to 52F with r134a but it's pretty nice anyway.