Serpentine belt idler (Vortec 5.7)

[HotWheelsBurban]

Apologies to all - very sloppy of me here. It is indeed the tensioner that I'm referring too.



Mine is as above but without rough spots (yet!). No radial or lateral play just that wobbly sort of play - that appears to be a feature from new.

When I have a moment I'm going to measure the pulley part and see if I can source that on its own in the UK. There's probably a catalogue of them on-line with standardised sizes.

I completely understand not wanting to spend any more money than necessary, but the tensioner assembly is best replaced as such. They have a spring in them that does lose strength over time. And if the belt is allowed to be loose, it's capable of doing a LOT of damage under the hood.
IIRC Dad replaced "just the pulley " on one that we had. On the 90 TBI 5.7 Burb, I think. We had to buy the complete tensioner not too much later. I've been told by people that know more about this stuff than me that the tensioner assembly and idler pulley should be considered as wear parts, and changed every so often.

 

[Postmech]

Buy a complete tensioner, the pivot is a wear item also. I have seen them come apart and its usually a disaster. The more they wear, more belt misalignment.

 

[Steve A]

Don't cheap out, it's false economy. A tow truck/rollback is a lot more that the difference between a new pulley with bearing and a tensioner assembly.

 

[El Tigre]

I've had a fair amount of success on both idler ,and tensioner pulleys by picking out the seals to repack the ball bearings with chassis grease. Reinstalling seals ,then the pulley itself.

 

[Pinger]

I've had a fair amount of success on both idler ,and tensioner pulleys by picking out the seals to repack the ball bearings with chassis grease. Reinstalling seals ,then the pulley itself.

I did that today on the tensioner pulley. Is the idler the same re seals (actually shields more than seals)?

I packed mine with an NLGI #1 grease rather than an NLGI #2 that I use on the chassis. As a rule of thumb, NLGI #2 up to 3000 rpm, NLGI #1 up to 6000 rpm. That pulley must be absolutely flying given its size relative to the crank pulley!