About Suzuki G-Series Engine Pulleys

In this short article, we will provide some information on the type of pulleys that Suzuki used on their G-Series engines. We will discuss 3 groove, and 4 groove pulley setups and their differences, and compatibility issues of Suzuki G Series pulleys in general.

This information was obtained by myself with the help from various members of the Suzuki fan community. This is by no means meant to be an authority on pulleys for Suzuki engines, but only to provide some basic information. We aim to help our customers make an informed decision about what kind of pulley would fit their vehicle.

All Suzuki G-Series engines for cars are setup with similar pulleys. Suzuki trucks (Tracker, Sidekick, Samurai) normally use a different pulley system which will not be discussed at length here. The main difference with the truck pulleys is that they use a V-belt in conjunction with a multi-rib pulley. Thunder Cloud Precision, LLC has not yet developed any pulleys for these vehicles, so we will mainly be discussing pulleys for cars (Swift, Metro, etc) .

When it comes to Suzuki cars, there is a 3-groove pulley system and a 4-groove pulley system. Pulleys from these 2 systems are not compatible. The pulley system and the timing system also have to work together. Cars that have the earlier 3-groove pulleys used a narrower timing belt than was used on the later 4-groove pulley cars. Because the timing belt, and timing gear are thicker on a 4-groove pulley car, the crankshaft pulley is sticking further out, and the offset of the water pump pulley is different to accommodate for this. We have heard from customers with belt alignment issues. Belt alignment issues sometimes are caused by an incorrect timing gear being used.

When choosing a crankshaft pulley it is important to know some simple things:

1) How many grooves does my crankshaft pulley, alternator pulley and water pump pulley have? There are only 2 options here. It either has 3 or 4. Just look at your pulley and determine the number of grooves in the pulley.

2) If you have a 4 groove pulley, it fits the 4 rib belt system and all of our 4 groove crankshaft pulleys should fit it. Some (mostly 1.0L late model) engines use a crank timing gear with a dowel pin instead of a key to locate the crankshaft pulley. All Thunder Cloud Precision LLC pulleys have both a dowel pin location hole and keyway machined into them.

3) If you have a 3 groove crankshaft pulley, there is either a 4 or 5 bolt hole pattern on the pulley.

4) All 3 groove water pump pulleys will fit all 3 groove crankshaft pulleys, there is no difference in the offset between the 4 and 5 hole pulleys.

5)All 4 groove water pump pulleys will fit all 4 groove crankshaft pulleys, there is no difference in the offset between keyed and dowel fitted pulleys.

If you wish to provide additional information on this topic, or would like to make a correction, please reach out to us at our email: thundercloudprecision@gmail.com