Yea seemingly small but so completely unnecessary.

Changing the water pump on my daughter's 2012 GMC Terain 3.0 V6 and noticed the idler pulley felt a little loose and rough so... while I am in there... And since the car has over 200,000 miles on it, I decided to change the serpentine belt the idler pulley and the belt tensioner... no big problem despite working between the engine and the frame of the car (transverse engine) Right?

Except... some Genius at GM decided to put a bolt through the idler pulley that is 1/4, maybe just 1/8 inch too long to remove because when it backs out it hits the frame of the car. And no, I can't just force the engine over with a crowbar tried that. What do you have to do to get it out? You have to remove the alternator because the bolt also passes through and fasten one point of the alternator. I may cut the bolt and replace it with a 1/4 inch shorter one.

My experience is that the best way to remove the idler pulley is to remove it at it’s pivot point.

quote:

Originally posted by 4MUL8R:
My experience is that the best way to remove the idler pulley is to remove it at it’s pivot point.

Thanks but,,, There IS no pivot point... this is a stationary idler. I already have the pivoting tensioner and pulley off.

If you can't cut it, remove the engine mount and jack the engine up a bit until it clears.
I've had to zizz wheel them out before myself.

quote:

Originally posted by ScreamingCockatoo:
If you can't cut it, remove the engine mount and jack the engine up a bit until it clears.
I've had to zizz wheel them out before myself.

Had to take the engine mount out to get to the water pump. Got a jsck under the engine but it is pretty solid, doesn’t really move much.

I guess I see why the new pulley comes with a new bolt! If it isn’t shorter… it will be!

Yeah, that engineer needs beat with a bag of hammers. Probably the same asshole that designed the Venture vans...I ran into a bunch of stuff like that back when I owned that thing. I did a lot of what SC described...unbolt the motor mount and jack the engine halfway out of the car just to get a bolt out. Worst vehicle I've ever owned.