HELP! Belt came off, cant put back on!

[RocKrawler]

So I'm driving down the street to get gas & light ahead turns red, downshift to let the exhaust brake help make my pads last longer & the battery light comes on, then air isnt as cold, cant steer easily & I know my belt came off. Sure enough it did, I checked the belt and it appears fine, no cracks, chunks, etc, so I figured the RPM jump when I released the clutch made it jump, only now I cant get it to go back on. I checked the manual & the tensioner is just below the alternator, says to put a wrench on it & pull up to releive tension, only in the direction it says the bolt just loosens, so how the heck am I supposed to releive tension to re-install the belt? (Manual shows putting the wrench horizontal on the pulley bolt, then lifting clockwise toward the center of the vehicle, which loosens the bolt, not lifting the pulley)

Please help - I have a buyer coming over to check it out in 2 hours!

 

[DaveBen]

Don't take the bolt off. Pull the tensioner which ever way that loosens it and replace the belt. It is simple once you get the hand if it.

Dave

 

[RocKrawler]

That doesnt make sens if you pull the bolt the way it losens, then the bolt will just turn, the tensioner wont pull up..

 

[RocKrawler]

Figured it out, loosened the bolt above the tensioner body a couple of turns, and grabbed the pulley bolt witha 15mm socket ona breaker bar (real tight with the fan blades) and rotated the pulley up/left (counterclockwise, end of breaker bar near the AC compressor & pulling up toward the alternator) it rotated up & allowed enough slack to pop the belt back on.
Thats the good news, the bad news is the vacuum pump pulley has a hellacious noise coming from what seems to be the bearing. Guess I get to start shopping!

 

[RoReRi]

Same thing happened to me... My vacume pump locked up on me and threw the belt.
Go to NAPA their vacume pumps come with a lifetime warrenty, be sure to keep the reciept.

Good LUCK!!!
RoReRi

 

[RocKrawler]

Same thing happened to me... My vacume pump locked up on me and threw the belt.
Go to NAPA their vacume pumps come with a lifetime warrenty, be sure to keep the reciept.

Good LUCK!!!
RoReRi

How much was it and how hard was the replacement? AND DID YOU NOTICE ANY SPEWED OIL AROUND IT?

 

[RoReRi]

Its been about a year ago, so I don't know for sure how much it was, but I think it was around a hundred bucks.
It isn't hard to replace at all, but you will have to have the pully taken off the old one and put on the new one.
The only non-issue is that at least one of the bolts that hold the pump on has to be in the pump when you put the pully back on, or it will not fit in the hole because the pully is in the way.

Good Luck!
RoReRi

 

[RocKrawler]

So I can remove the pump from the vehicle without removing the pulley, right?

 

[94f450sd]

yes you can remove the pump with the pully on it.its a pain but can be done with a 10MM wrench.

 

[RocKrawler]

OK, pump off no sweat with 10mm wrench, has lots of black goo/tar coming from the bearing area but need to press the pulley off tomorrow at work & new one on. Didnt have any play that could be felt but definitely sounded like the noise coming from the vac pump. Once I got it off I checked the other pulleys, AC felt fine but PS below it has play in/out on the pulley (like 1/4" or so) IS THAT NORMAL OR IS IT MY PS PUMP THATS SCREWED? There's no up/down play or wobble I can feel, just the in/out motion. Before I install this vac pump & its not the problem, I want to rule out the PS pump/pulley. HELP!