I have a 88 5.7 TBI 4x4 and I’ve been fraying belts lengthwise and have narrowed it down to either the (non-working) AC or the useless smog pump. I’m on the cheap right now so can’t afford to throw a bunch of dough at it. Belt came off again today in the heat 90+ and a bunch of it was wrapped around the ac pulley so I’m thinking that’s the culprit. There definitely seems to be a little noise coming from either the ac or smog pump? I don’t have the money for a new or used nightmare AC job so I ordered the ac delete bracket. My question is should/can I just remove the smog pump pulley and get a shorter belt since it seems to be a little noisy and wobbly as well? If I do/can can I just leave smog pump on minus the pulley with little to no effect? Or do I need to remove the whole pump? If you leave the pump and yank the pulley do you remover the idle tensioner? I don’t care about weight or clutter just need reliability at the moment. Or should I just install theac delete pulley and hope the smog pump isn’t the culprit? I’m going to have to buy anew belt either way so I’m wonderingwhat’s the best play? Any input would beappreciated. Has a new alternator and belttensioner and ps seems good. Thx!