Tensioner Pulley took a crap on me. Help!

[XphiberoptikX]

I have a 95 grand am se witht eh 3100 v6 motor as a daily driver. Well today a belt started squeaking very loudly and then maybe 20 miles later i noticed that i was lacking power steering. Well i made it into work but when i was leaving i noticed the battery light was on. Well I popped the hood to see the accessory belt sitting loose and not spinning. I turned the car off and looked around and the belt had a bit of wear on the outside of it. I managed to get a few fingers down between the frame rail and motor and felt the outer ring of the tensioner pulley just sitting there. the inside of the pulley was chewed up.

First off, how the hell does this happen?

Second, How easy on a scale of 1-10 is it to replace the tensioner pulley and accessory belt on this car? I have a fair amount of mechanical knowledge and do most of my own work on my other car and have done a few things like replace the altenator and heatercore and such on this car.

If anyone has a how-to on this topic Id be in your debt.

[RocketFast321]

I rate it a 2 to 3 to change. It just happens on a 3100. Our malibu did it with 48k i belive. The sucker spilt apart. Since you know how to change the alt. You know how to take the belt off and put it back on. Thats good :) The tensioner has one bolt on it. Take to the bolt out and the remains of the old tensioner. Go to the local parts store and get a new one. About $30 if I remember right. The new one should come with a new bolt and washers. The one I got did. It will fall right into place. To change the belt get a floor jack snug under the oil pan with a 2x4 between jack and oil pan. Remove the two bolts and nuts on the passenger side that hold the engine in place. Raise the engine slowly so you can get the belt out.

simple no?

[XphiberoptikX]

appreciated... praying for no rain tomorrow... i need to get this piece back on the road.

thanks for the helpful reply.

[josh]

Deran you should be able to fix this by your self :)

[Chain]

1 to 10 I would say a 3. I say a 3 because changing it is very easy but I didn't good enough tools to get the dang thing to move enough to get the dang belt on.
It was a pain but with a bent wrench and a cheater bar finally got it on.

[XphiberoptikX]

how the hell do i get the tensioner to loosen enough slack to get on the altenator?????

[Chain]

Thats the part I was talking about. I had to use a bent wrench and use a small cheater pipe. I had my wife slide on the belt. they make a tool that makes it real easy but I didn't have one.

[XphiberoptikX]

how i still cant get enough slack to put the belt on!

[XphiberoptikX]

how did you use the wrench and bar combo??

[nice96gt]

I just used and open end box wrench, not sure if it was a 18mm or 19mm or whatever fits, and slipped the open end onto where there is a little groove in the tensioner. That will give you some good leverage to move the tensioner and get enough slack to get the belt on. An extra set of hands will make it easier also, but you can still do it by yourself. Good luck :)

[RocketFast321]

autozone has a tool you can rent to get the belt back on

[XphiberoptikX]

Originally posted by nice96gt
I just used and open end box wrench, not sure if it was a 18mm or 19mm or whatever fits, and slipped the open end onto where there is a little groove in the tensioner. That will give you some good leverage to move the tensioner and get enough slack to get the belt on. An extra set of hands will make it easier also, but you can still do it by yourself. Good luck :)

What do you do with the wrench? We ended up taking a pry bar and propping it on the tensioner and using a jack to push it up and still had to loosen the altenator to get it on. Are you telling me you just put a wrench on the tensioner arm and pushed up on it? I can handle my own and theres no way I was getting the tensioner to move enough to get the belt on.

[nice96gt]

Originally posted by XphiberoptikX
What do you do with the wrench? We ended up taking a pry bar and propping it on the tensioner and using a jack to push it up and still had to loosen the altenator to get it on. Are you telling me you just put a wrench on the tensioner arm and pushed up on it? I can handle my own and theres no way I was getting the tensioner to move enough to get the belt on.

Actually that's exactly what I did. I didn't know of this until I had a friend show me. He is a mechanic and he took the belt on and off by himself. One hand on the wrench lifting the tensioner up and the other to put the belt on. I was quite amazed since I had such a hard time doing it the first time around...lol. Who knows why it was like that.

[Brad97GS]

Yeah, that's the way it's supposed to be done.

I'm curious though. Did you replace the tensioner, or did you just replace the belt? If the tensioner was bad and you just put a new belt on, then the new belt will just get chewed up again. Maybe the fact that you were having so much trouble with the tensioner means that it is bad...

[XphiberoptikX]

no i put a whole new tensioner on it. it began with a bad pulley then i snapped the tensioner arm trying to "pry" it up for slack. I bought the whole deal and put it back on with the same belt. the belt looked fine. Its running strong now with no problems (its been about 100 miles since the fix). I still want to know how anyone can move the tensioner on their own...