2000 Grand Am Gt seized belt

[shyguy5885]

2000 gt 3.4 with 193,000 miles. It just started making awful loud noise and when I popped the hood, the belt wasnt moving at all. I slipped the belt off and started turning some of the pulleys. There is a smaller one below the water pump and power steering pump, above crank pully and above AC pulley. Is this a pulley for the camshaft, or is this just an accessory/pivot point pulley for the belt? This pulley will not rotate in one direction, and is very stiff to rotate in opposite direction

[Crvett69]

if its a smooth pulley its probably either the tensioner pulley or a idler puller, if it has grooves it could drive something or be idler but it won't be a camshaft belt

[aleekat]

Well someone correct me if I'm wrong but aren't ALL camshafts driven by a timing belt not the serpentine belt?

[Crvett69]

or chains or gears

[Tech II]

Correct......you have an alternator, PS, W/P, A/C, and crank pulley.....the tensioner pulley will be on the end of a moveable arm.......any other pulleys will just be idler pulleys......all pulleys, except for the crank pulley(which moves with the engine running), will spin freely.....

The one you describe is an idler pulley.....your camshaft is driven by a chain inside the engine.......

[shyguy5885]

Thank you for the tips - I later realized it was a silly question as cam is behind timing cover. Just wanted to give an update, I finally swapped out the old pulley. One of the ball bearings was missing upon removal, as well as a section of the solder holding balls in place. It was quite a can of worms - I put a socket on bolt to start removing and got it stuck between bolt/engine and the inner frame/engine wall. I ended up having to saw apart the socket/wrench and stick with an open end wrench only. I did notice the crank pulley is quite wobbly, which I have never noticed before. I'm assuming this, in addition to age and mileage, is what contributed to the pulley failure. The beast lives on, at least for another day so far ha. Thanks

[aleekat]

Did a similar thing. But I was able to screw the bolt back in and use a wrench. Now I have a set of gear wrenches. What a great knuckle saver. Or a swivel headed socket wrench.