Serpentine Belt Tensioner

[sha4000]

Hello community, I have a question concerning the removal of the tensioner. Even Mods need help sometimes. I can't remember if the power steering pulley has to be removed to get tensioner off. In my mind I Know there is no way to slide the A/C compressor forward with the pulley in the way. Has anyone removed the tensioner on a 98-00 model without doing any other maintenance? What's the easiest way to do this?

[landar]

I do not believe the PS pulley would need to be removed. I am really confused on your AC compressor comment as it is way over to the right of the tensioner pulley.

Here is a pic of my 98 LS as I remove the tension on the serpentine belt. Looks like a few nuts/bolts to remove and it is off.

[sha4000]

Thanks landar I was hoping that you would respond. I got it done but it was not as simple as you think. I thought it would be that's why I was a lil frustrated and made this thread. The process is below.

When I made this thread I kind of figured that I would not get many responses but I was in a rush and I did not think the process through.I took a lil time to think it through and got the work done.

 

I searched the forum and google and did not find any info on just changing the tensioner out by itself. I removed it before but that was in the process of changing the timing belt.I thought I would be able to change it without repeating some of those steps but it was not going to happen

 

Let me state that this is for the 98-00 LS. It should be similar for the 95-97 but I'm not sure. I read some posts that on the first gen that you could just remove the 2 nuts and the 1 bolt and just slide it off but that does not apply to the 98-00 model.

 

On the 98-00 you must remove the power steering pulley to have enough room to unbolt the 1 nut and 1 bolt to slide the A/C compressor forward and to the side since the tensioner sits on the same top stud in back of the compressor. You must remove the passenger side timing belt cover and use some creative wiggling to get it off.You also have to remove the timing belt dust cover underneath the thermostat housing and wiggle that out of the way. I found it easier to remove the idler pulley to get that dust cover off. After that you can remove the 2 nuts and 1 bolt and slide the tensioner off and up through the fan blades.

 

The new OEM tensioner is a different design than the old tensioner. The pulley is also smaller on the new tensioner. My car was squealing upon cold startup and I originally bought a new belt but the squeal was still present so I figured it was either the idler or tensioner pulley since both bearings were shot. I pressed the tensioner bearing out with a 22mm socket and rubber mallet and that helped some but the noise was still present but I noticed that if I moved the pulley slightly to the right that the noise went away. This convinced me that the tensioner itself was bad.I found one on Ebay for $42 shipped and for now the noise is gone. I have not had a chance to drive the car so I'll see how it goes in a couple of days. I still have to either change the bearing in the idler or buy a new one. I updated my thread so if anyone else searches this in the future they will have a clear answer on how to change out the tensioner for a 98-00 LS.

[billydpowell]

thanks for the writeup, but hope I dont need it very soon..

[Deen]

Hey guys,

I know this is an old thread (more than a year old) but I was wondering if anyone had replaced just the idler on the tensioner. I read somewhere that it has a reverse thread. Meaning that you have to turn it clockwise to take it off and vice-versa to put it back on. I have to replace it on my 96 LS400 so need some advice. Just dont want to break stuff unnecessarily.

Thanks :)

[sha4000]

On 8/16/2016 at 4:48 PM, Deen said:

Hey guys,

I know this is an old thread (more than a year old) but I was wondering if anyone had replaced just the idler on the tensioner. I read somewhere that it has a reverse thread. Meaning that you have to turn it clockwise to take it off and vice-versa to put it back on. I have to replace it on my 96 LS400 so need some advice. Just dont want to break stuff unnecessarily.

Thanks :)

Are you talking about just changing the pulley? If so, yes you can just change the pulley without changing the tensioner. Just remove the 1 bolt clockwise to take it off and put new pulley on. First remove the belt though.

[Deen]

Thanx so much. I have changed the pulley. Works great now.

 

[Exhaustgases]

I was going to say that is the quick fix if there is bearing noise, just the pulley needs changing. If the tension is weak then the whole unit needs changing.