Don't know how it happened, but when wife called with no steering and overheated van in the local Sam's club parking lot, I found this instead of the assumed busted fan belt. Alternator, tension pulley, and idler pulley along with the bracket were tilted forward a bit. All 3 bolts were busted off, a bit below flush.
Not much room to work with this in a van, but I got about 6 inches or so to work with after pulling various items off. Tried drilling with a portable drill fitted with a 90 degree chuck and a 1/8 left-hand bit, but couldn't get much pressure on it, and the drill would only go
600rpm. Have towed van home so can use a real drill now (faster) although I couldn't find a bigger left-hand bit (wanted to try around a 1/4).Bolts are soaking in Seafoam deep creep now, and I have acquired a set of Craftsman Drill-out power extractors. Haven't tried these before, but they have a left-hand design on the drill part of the extractor bit. Not sure if I should use cutting oil with it, though.
Looking for any suggestions cause I ain't too optimistic at this point. Even tried to look up a local EDM guy in the phone book, but no luck - dunno how available that is or what it costs, but it's gotta be cheaper than pulling the engine.
Anywho, I got 2 weeks before SWMBO gets home from a trip, and if I don't have this fixed by then my wheels will be taken away!
KJ