Broken TJ idler pulley adjuster -- how bad?

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

Reply to
Hal Haygood
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The idler assembly is held on with two rather substantial bolts.Remove these bolts and the idler will come right off, and you can simply bolt a new one on.

That said, this is one of the places where you can fix it with bailing wire and bubble gum. Loosen the bolt that holds the idler pulley in place, use a prybar to apply pressure to the pulley in the directin needed to hold the belt tight, and tighten the securing bolt again. This will suffice until you need to replace the belt again.

Reply to
Jeff Strickland

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