Changing the tensioner idler pulley for PS / AC belt.

timk225 · Post by **timk225** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 9:16 pm

My 5 Neon SXT ATX had the pulley go bad on the tensioner for the power steering and AC belt. Once I got it apart I saw that the ball bearing was all locked up and out of lube.

But getting it apart? That took some work.

First, my brother and I went to work on it with the motor mounting plate still in place, to see if we could get it out in the car. After breaking off some parts of the timing belt cover, I did succeed in getting the bolt out, but surprise! The pulley was still hitting the aluminum motor mounting plate and we had to remove the motor plate to get it out.

Once the motor plate was out, the pulley STILL wouldn't come off, as no matter where we moved the tensioner arm to, part of the pulley was always behind the motor plate!

What idiot designed this piece of crap? This is no accident, they make it this way to force people to spend more money buying a new part, but they don't fool me. I'll cut it in half and weld it together with a junkyard part before I give them one dollar!

So we debated on what to do. Get my Dremel grinder from home and grind a notch the next day? No. Remove the tensioner assembly from the motor plate? No, besides it didn't seem to want to come off. Buy a whole new motor plate and tensioner assembly for $200 at NAPA? HELL NO!!!

So I got the best idea ever. I flipped the motor plate over and marked the area of the plate where it least covered the pulley. Then I got an electric drill out with a 3/16" bit in it, and drilled a bunch of holes around the offending area, then wobbled the drill bit around in each hole to remove more metal, then I took a hammer and broke the piece out! 5 minutes and DONE!

Then the pulley was able to come off and be replaced easily. Then we reassembled everything in the car and all was well.

But damn, what a pain in the ass job for one bolt and one frickin' pulley wheel to be changed!

I read somewhere recently that the service interval to change this idler pulley is 90 K miles? Mine was quite a bit overdue!

Post by **occasional demons** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 10:58 pm

This one is mine, I had no issue getting the pulley off of the arm.

I followed this:
http://chronoscender.freeservers.com/ne ... ptens.html

timk225 · Post by **timk225** » Mon Feb 09, 2015 4:17 pm

Your photo looks like the pulley can lift straight off. On my motor mount plate, no matter where we moved the tensioner arm to, the pulley was behind the plate at least a little bit. But I fixed that plate's ass good with a drill and hammer in about 5 minutes!

It wouldn't surprise me if there's a couple different versions of the mounting plate.

I wonder how the tensioner assembly fastens to the plate, I think it is slipped on and the end of the aluminum shaft it pivots on is smashed down, like a big rivet. That's what it looks like to me.

Post by **occasional demons** » Mon Feb 09, 2015 4:36 pm

Mine looked just like this:

Perhaps yours is not moving as far as it should.