Urgent Help needed..stranded!!

[Nick_S]

So I'm stuck in utah after my mechanical tension pulley decided to overheat and destroy the bearing. A local parts store has one order but I'm concerned if the wrong part shows up, what to do from there. I can't be stuck here.

So my question is this. Is there anyway to run the serpentine belt without a tensioner? It's an M50 running no powersteering so the configuration looks like this.



Is there a way to just pull the belt on? It would only be temporary as I need to get from here to Long Beach which is right around 400 miles. If so, any idea how to measure the length of it? Any help is hugely appreciated.

[328ijunkie]

basically if you can get to the parts store with a flat head just find a belt that is the right lenght you can draw it on over the alternator pulley by turning the crank. Ive had to do this once...

[theevildoodlebob]

If the tensioner does come back to be incorrect I would look into pulling the pulley off of the tensioner on the motor and just replacing it. It is just a dust cover and a bolt to get the plastic pulley off and replace it. It would be ideal that the pulley that you replace it with is the same size but not critical for temporary use as long as its close. Just about all bearings should have the same ID and thickness so there wont be any changes there. You could even likely walk in to the parts store with the pulley and see if they might have any idler pulleys that has a similar width and diameter.

[Nick_S]

basically if you can get to the parts store with a flat head just find a belt that is the right lenght you can draw it on over the alternator pulley by turning the crank. Ive had to do this once...

My hotel is directly across the street from napa so worst case I'll try this.

If the tensioner does come back to be incorrect I would look into pulling the pulley off of the tensioner on the motor and just replacing it. It is just a dust cover and a bolt to get the plastic pulley off and replace it. It would be ideal that the pulley that you replace it with is the same size but not critical for temporary use as long as its close. Just about all bearings should have the same ID and thickness so there wont be any changes there. You could even likely walk in to the parts store with the pulley and see if they might have any idler pulleys that has a similar width and diameter.

good idea. The part should be here in about 3 hours so I'll see. Once i got the tensioner off I took it to Napa and tried to find something but nothing matched the inner diameter of the bearing.


If it is the hydraulic tensioner, does it bolt up exactly the same as the mechanical one?

[Wanganstyle]

Don't change from mechanical to hydro; the mechanical setup is easier to find and cheaper / less parts can break.

Hydrolic tensioner no auto parts store will have; bmw dealer does stock this though.

It's a complete different setup with 3 different length bolts to block instead of 2 for the mechanical. 2 bolts to fasten the hydrolic piston as well; much different you need the entire thing.

If you convert a ps deleted 24v swap from hydrolic to mechanical the belt length required is different;

I have had this problem personally; was a total pita Our hydrolic setup broke racing and melted the pulleys and water pump pulley (wheel to wheel endurance racing in 109 degree heat)

Auto zone and kragen will have the mechanical tensioner complete like yours in stock for about $60-


You absolutely need the tensioner; loose it and your engine will cook from waterpump drive loss

[Nick_S]

We already called Oreilly's and Autozone only lists the hydraulic unit.

[agent]

Last time I checked, WorldPAC had the mechanical tensioners. Advance and CarQuest are both retail arms for them, so either should be able to order one - that is of course if there's one of those where you are.

[Nick_S]

Last time I checked, WorldPAC had the mechanical tensioners. Advance and CarQuest are both retail arms for them, so either should be able to order one - that is of course if there's one of those where you are.

The guy at Napa called the CarQuest up the road and they said they have one in their Las Vegas warehouse and could have it by 4pm today. I rode up and had them order it and am waiting on it now. The part number they had matched the part number napa had with a picture of the mechanical one. As much as I'm trying not to worry, I just really hope it's the right part.

[Nick_S]

Crisis averted. Correct tensioner was found. Thanks for the input anyways!

[Matt-B]

Things could have been much worse, glad you got her squared away