Okay, I'm a dumbass. I replaced my serpentine belt (that's not the dumb part). A few days later, it started squealing a bit on cold starts. No big deal, just tighten it up a little more.
Now comes the dumb part. Tonight, when I went to tighten the belt, I forgot to loosen the idler pulley mounting bolt. Oblivious to the inordinate amount of torque it was taking to turn the adjuster, I blithely cranked away, until -- you guessed it -- it sheared right off.
From what I can tell, this is going to be a bit of a PITA to fix. I think I can take care of it without removing the front end, but I'm not looking forward to it. In the meantime, however, I want to make sure I'm not tempting fate too badly by running without the adjuster. If the mounting bolt is cranked down tight, do I really have to worry about the idler pulley sliding and loosening the belt?
And, if anyone has had to deal with this before, how hard was it to repair?
Hal