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The idler pulley on the belt tentioner of my 97 lesabre just blew up. It missed my eye by mm's...
So now i'm getting ready to install a new one. Is it reverse threaded? any tricks i need to know before going at it? Do I need to keep the tentioner arm from moving somehow?
BTW it was kind of nastalgic watching my life pass before my eyes. My kids want to know what it was I was yelling... I told them not to repeat it to anyone.
You can get in a real jam with these new cars. Everything is sooow tite you may not want to do this. First buy the part at your frendly GM store. The book shows idler and bracket and determin if you can just replace the plastic and bearing only. If it comes apart there may be a chance. Oterwise the front mount may have to come off. To do that the engine has to be carefully raised with out busting the cast aluminum pan. All metric tools needed. Some times the radiator and power steering gets in the way.
Who says those newfangled cars are hard to work on? That's one of the easiest! Apparently BigDonno is stuck in the past and doesn't own any metric tools. 15mm for the idler pulley bolt. Left Hand thread. If it's just the bearing/pulley that "exploded" you can just replace that. The tensioner arm on those tend to last a good long time. So if there's nothing wrong with the tensioner itself, I'd just replace the pulley and get on with my life.
The idler could be tired. Should have very little play. No need to go in twice.
That car doesn't even have an idler pulley...