If it ain't one thing, its another...
Thread Starter
Race Director
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 10,956
Likes: 682
From: Marlboro country MA
If it ain't one thing, its another...
Got a 92 A4 with about 145K miles. As expected, it's a neverending saga replacing parts as they fail. Although it's a daily driver, my real passion is drag racing. Earlier this year, I put on LT headers, which really gave it a lot more power, getting me into the 12's for the first time. Then, a month ago, the day before I planned to take it to the track again, the Dana36 went BOOM. OK, so a Dana44 got installed. This led to me getting MT ET street radials, which will finally let me apply all the engine's power without spinning the tires. This needs a line-lock for doing a burnout, but in the process of bleeding the brake lines, the bleeder valve on the caliper sheared off. So, a new caliper gets installed.
On to today. On my way to the track, the serpentine belt slipped off the pulleys, so I lost power steering and the alternator. I was able to limp home, where I discovered that the tensioner pulley has fried its bearings. Easy to fix, but no racing today, and next week there's only special events at the track. Maybe I'll get to race in July. Good-bye springtime density altitudes...
On to today. On my way to the track, the serpentine belt slipped off the pulleys, so I lost power steering and the alternator. I was able to limp home, where I discovered that the tensioner pulley has fried its bearings. Easy to fix, but no racing today, and next week there's only special events at the track. Maybe I'll get to race in July. Good-bye springtime density altitudes...
Large Impressive Member
Joined: Jul 2003
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From: Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die
St. Jude Donor '04-'05-'06-'07
These pulleys seem to have a relatively short life. Mine were replaced just over 30K miles ago and when I had the engine out recently I noticed the bearings were feeling a little rough so I replaced them again. Both the tensioner and the idler pulley are the same part number (on the LTx engines) and if the rest of the tensioner is still good, just the pulley can be replaced which saves money. Also always look at the outer surface. The plastic is bad to wear giving the belt an uneven surface to run on. It seems that these last about as long as the belt so it's probably good PM to just change them then.
