98 Camaro, 3.8. Wife was complaining about belt squeal. I looked and the belt was alittle rough, but I noticed that the belt was running on the very edge of the tensioner pulley.

I replaced the belt, belt still run on the edge. All pulleys feel good. Water pump pulley has just a slight wiggle, 1/32-1/16 at the most.

Wife called earlier, it threw the belt. Figured it would. Went and put it back on for her. Followed her to work and after about 10 miles, the belt was about 1/8 off the pulley.

Car has 170k on it, is the tensioner shot? How hard is it to replace?
thanks guys

 

is the arm the pulley attatches to cocked or not in line with all other pullies?

 

dont have it where I can look right now, but from what I remember, it did look like the pulley was angled just a hair. Angled to where the belt would roll off after awhile.

That kind of makes sense to me, if the spring wears into the aluminum housing, with the belt on, under tension, the pulley would angle down.
Like this / if you are looking at it from the passenger side.

 

without seeing a picture I would guess that the tensioner assembly would need replaced. When you are infront of the car sometime see if you can grab the arm and move it back and forth. If it can then its obviously broken and when you unbolt it the thing will fall apart. A lot of times they break like that and the only thing holding them there is the bolt. Hope I could help

 

I'll try to get a pic later tonight. I did notice that I could push the pulley down with my hands almost enough to put the pulley back on. The new one I got I cant even move it with my hands. With the belt off, I cant feel any movement in the pulley.

Thanks for all the help. I'll post up later tonight when she gets home.

 

just went and looked at it. With a ratchet on the pulley, there is definately some movement in the arm in a way that it shouldnt move. Going to work on it tomorrow.

Thanks again for the help.

 

Yep it was the tensioner. Running fine now.

And in case anyone ever finds this thread, it takes all of about 30 minutes to swap out.

Remove belt, remove alternator (3 bolts and 1 plug), remove the 2 hoses, 2 bolts on the tensioner. Replace the plastic elbows and reinstall everything.

 

good deal glad to hear you got it fixed!

 

thanks for all the help!