94 Topaz Idler Pulley partly missing?

My niece has an old 94 Topaz with a 4 cyl automatic...A couple of days ago she said the car was over heating and hard to steer..I went up there today and found the serpentine belt was basically shredded...Looking around and thinking something was froze up I saw that the smooth flat pulley the belt goes over which is in front of the water pump (I believe the belt routing diagram called it an idler pulley) seemed to be half missing..When I say half missing I mean that it was suppose to be about 1 inch wide (The width of the belt) but it was in fact not half that width and was off to the side so only half the belt would rest on it....How could this have happened?..Is there suppose to be maybe an wider outer rim on this pulley that has somehow come off?..It looked like it was pretty close to the side wall of the vehicle so how much of a nightmare is getting this pulley off and replacing it?..Thanks :-)

Reply to
Sara Brown
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Reply to
Mike Walsh

OK..Just as a follow up in case anyone else Google searches for this problem down the road..Somehow a bolt that is directly behind this pulley had worked itself loose and the plastic pulley was grinding against it til half of it was gone and then the belt slipped off and got torn up

Reply to
Sara Brown

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