Serpentine belt Help!

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lilwheezy75

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So i was driving today when my car made a weird noise... my power steering shut off, charge system light whent on, and tempurature gauge shot up. I pull in to a parking lot to find that the far back round pulley for my serpentine belt, Melted and broke in half.... i dont know what it was powering back there but the belt wouldnt spin. Its for a 94 conti.. its the farthest one in the back ist maybe 1 inch... to 2 in in diameter. On the little diagram on engine compartment it said something about tension changer or tension meter? I need help to what it could be... Ill take pics of the part tonight.. and pics of the engine tomorrow in the day light.. i really need help to replace this because the water pump wont work, alternator wont run, no A/C (not like i need it), and whatever else is in there... wont run!!
 
alright.. i just took a few pics or the part i need to replace.. I took a few angles so yous could see what happened. But what i need is to find out what size that pulley is or what it goes to so i can get a new one.

I threw the phone in there so you can get a size comparison

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pics not showing but...

sounds like your tensioner pulley puked.. fairly common, not a very expensive part either.

you will need new tensioner pulley (may not have to replace the tensioner assembly itself, just pulley), new belt, and while there, for the few extra bucks, replace the idler pulley too (kinda below the power steering pump).

Guessin around 25 for the belt, and 15 or so each for the pulleys.

DO NOT try to drive your car.. you WILL cause major damage (due to no water pump), as well as no power steering, no alt, no a/c. That belt drives EVERY accessory on the engine.

it is a little tight in there to change the parts, but it is possible. the hardest part I had was releasing tension on the tensioner (due to location, the 1/2 square drive hole wouldn't line up for me to use a breakerbar to move it. I used a pipe wrench over the end, with a pipe on that to get leverage)
 
sorry i dno how to post pics...

But im going to stop by the dealer tomorrow to try and order the parts... yea im not going to drive it.. we drove it home because it was snowing and no one would tow me but it was a 5 min ride... the car didnt over hear because the weather was soo cold.

Why would i wnt to replace the idler pulley? and Do i need a new belt, my dad who was a mechanic in his time... (i question him sometimes though) said the belt looks fine, because the once it seized up, it stopped spinning?
 
and will it be hard to get teh remainder of the pulley off since it seems to be melted to the assembly?? or is it attached to something else that will screw off.. I wish i could explain it better but i dont know much about cars
 
there is a bolt that goes thru the center of the pulley, that is all that holds it to the spring loaded tensioner arm. remove that bolt, pulley comes off with it.

I would replace the idler pulley because you already have had the tensioner fail, they usually don't last forever, and its cheap, and you already have the belt off the car. basically just replace it for piece of mind. not replacing it won't keep the new tensioner pulley from working, just I thought I would suggest that one too for the above reasons.

When the pulley siezed, the belt slipped on it for a little bit before it came off. again, I would replace it just for the piece of mind. if it looks good, it may be reused.

NOTE: on the top of the tensioner assy, there are 3 marks, the 2 outer ones are the 'limits of belt stretch allowed' and the center is the indicator. if you choose not to replace the belt, make sure your old one hasn't stretched too much by checking the markings on the top of the tensioner assy.
 
alright, i fixed the belt.. go thte pulley for 20 bucks. geting my car inspected feriday to make sure its good. Now i hear a gurgling noise only from inside. I was told it was the water going throught the heating system
 
it could be. you might have developed an air bubble too from possible localized overheating. remember running the car without water pump not only prevents water from circulating thru radiator, but also prevents water from circulating thru block and heads.
 
is the air bubble bad? I dont plan on drivin my car very much untill friday... I wont be driving to school everyday like i was or anything.. not untill its inspected. But what can happen from an air bubble?
 
A real bad air bubble could cause some overheating problems... a minor one is not a big deal, but you don't want air bubbles.

Think of the metal parts in the engine (some of which get very hot), without reliable cooling. it could be an issue, probably not, since you didn't drive the car much after the pulley broke.

its just a possibility you have an air bubble, but I wouldn't really worry a lot about it.
 
its going to the shop on thursday to get inspected... ill have them look at everything for me and let me know.
 
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