Rev 3 turbo a/c pulley removal

[danjama]

I have traced a rattle thats been annoying me to the a/c pulley. Its loose. I'd like to just remove the pulley, as the car has never had a/c or even a belt on it since i've had it. Is it as simple as removing the centre nut on the pulley and it will drop off? The only stupid question is the one you don't ask right?

[pbmr2]

why not just take the whole pump off?

[danjama]

Because that's more unnecessary work.

[yokomomr4bx]

Must say, I think given the space you have there and the fact that you don't want to retain function...definitely simpler in the long run to remove the pump and the front condenser rad. You would probably spend as long pulling the pulley off as you would just unbolting the lot and dropping it down.

As it's a clutched pulley I can't see it just falling off once you've removed the faceplate bolts.

[danjama]

Ok i'll jack it up and have a good look, can't be too difficult to remove the pump itself. The pulley is seriously loose though, hence why i thought it'd be easier to just remove that!

[SonicSW20]

Lol, didn't read OP properly.

Are you sure it's the AC pulley, not the AC *tensioner* pulley?

[danjama]

No i'm not sure it was a large pulley wobbling about.

[SonicSW20]

Large pulley will be the AC pulley. The smaller one is the tensioner.

As others have said, I don't know if you can easily remove the pulley on it's own! Only one way to find out.

[danjama]

Ok so unfortunately the pulley just turns with the nut, and I can't see a way of locking it in place to turn the nut independently. Is there a guide on removing the whole pump? I can't have this loose pulley rattling away anymore its getting on my nerves.