Aurora is dead in the water - idler pulley seized up , shattered belt

[IronAuroraV8]

Here we go again - yesterday the idler pulley had seized up and the accessory belt broke, I will try to fix it myself , but not having garage and working in Chicago sub temps is going to cost some blood.

From my understanding - i have to remove the engine mount in order to replace the idler pulley.

Someone with similar experience pleas shine some light here

thanks in advance

IronKrakus

[Indy8]

That's a negative on having to remove the torque plate. Maybe a member with a factory manual can give us the procedure, but I don't think it has to come off.

[IronAuroraV8]

well today i've picked up new pulley and belt from Napa - I do have Factory Service Manual but it does not show how to replace the idler pulley.
It just shows belt replacemant.

thanks

IronKrakus

[Indy8]

The procedure has to be in there somewhere. Perhaps as part of a related operation? I replaced my idler pulley and belt by removing the bolts that go through the plate so I could jack-up the engine a couple of inches and that was enough to get in there.

[IronAuroraV8]

Well after 10 hours of wrestling with the seized idler pulley I’ve finally got her to come off, but she has put up great fight. I've had to remove all the metal torque plates, engine mount, and power steering pump.

The bolt that goes through pulley had some kind of locking nut in the middle of it and once the pulley had seized up it pretty much had baked the bolt to the collar part of the pulley, which made it impossible to slide the bolt through towards the frame.

The Napa pulley looks bit different then the OEM one, I will return the NAPA pulley and I had to order OEM one at the dealership.

I hope that the new OEM pulley comes with new bolt, metal collar and aluminum spacer that go behind the pulley.

The dealer could not find the part number for bolt - so I’m assuming the new pulley will come in complete kit.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed and I’m hoping that re-assembly will go much smoother - lining up all those torque plates and engine mount could be tricky.

IronKrakus.

[dmorlow]

Before you put it back together, are you sure it's the idler pulley. I had the same thing happen to me a few months ago. Actually it happened to two of my cars. (What a quincidence.) The air conditioner pulley froze up. I thought it was the idler pulley also. It only made sense. (At least I was hoping that because of the cost.) But my air conditioner pulley was shot. Cost me about $800 for everything. (I bought the compressor brand new which wasn't cheap.) I did the install myself. But I still had to take it to a shop to have it evacuated and recharged.

[IronAuroraV8]

it was the idler pulley fpr sure - the bearings inside had seized up so bad - it pretty much cooked the collar and bolt together.

BTW , Dealer just called and said that new pulley comes with new bolt and spacer. Thats great news , becouse i thought that i will have to custom make one on the lathe machine.

ironkrakus

[IronAuroraV8]

Well finally i got my car to run again ! , the pulley install was a breeze
it only took 2 hours from start to finish !!! ( not like two days to remove the old seized up one ) I definately have learned a lot in proccess.
Removing those two torque plates along with engine mount helped a lot.

I've used the OEM pulley since one from NAPA didn't come with all the hardware ( bolt, spacer , and collar )

Ironkrakus