I was leaving a car show and my ‘89 wouldn’t start. It turned over, but squeeled like a stuck pig. Finally realized the belt was barely turning and the air cond compressor was seized, causing the squeel. Ended up waiting a long time for a tow truck…
Question: is there a way I could have broke/spun the pulley to let me at least start the car and drive home? The compressor was wrecked anyway, lol.

 

Turn the AC off or unplug it,if only the compressor pump is locked up.

 

Sounds like the clutch bearing is seized if it won't crank.

If the compressor itself is seized, the clutch would have to be engaged. If the OP's 89 has C68 (likely) the clutch does not engage until the engine is running. So if it didn't crank it was/is the clutch hub bearing.

I replaced the 10PA clutch on my 92 with a $90 replacement from RockAuto. It can be done without removing the compressor or loosing the refrigerant charge. The snap rings are a little fussy, and there is an index pin that required drilling a matching 'pip' in the new assembly, but not too bad a job. Took me a couple of hours, with no loss of refrigerant.

Never mind. I read it again. It started then squealed. Could still be the hub bearing, but could also be the compressor.

 

Not really...

Back in the old days, before serpentine systems, when the compressor seized, you could literally just cut the belt off because the compressor had its own V-belt. Even some early serpentine systems still had a separate V-belt for the compressor, while everything else was on a serpentine. But with your 89, if this belt routing is correct... the one belt controls everything:



In some engines, you can just put a shorter belt on and bypass the compressor, but in this case, you can't because it would end up reversing the order of your water pump. Not much you can do really... unless there's some way to disengage the clutch manually if it's mechanically stuck and the compressor internally is seized, but it sounds like a seized bearing... so nothing you can really do.

 

I would disconnect the A/C plug on the compressor, WD40 the **** out of the clutch area, then beat on it with a hammer for a bit. Then fire it up and see if the clutch freewheels fine. That will buy you time to decide what you want to do.

 

Depends on how far you have to go.

You could remove the serp belt and drive it. With no water pump, it will heat up quickly, so drive it gently. Where you can, shut it off and coast until road speed is low, restart it and do it again. You'll be surprised how far you can go with no water pump. The concern becomes depleting the battery for a restart because there is no alternator output either.

I had a 4.3 Blazer and I was towing a 4,000 boat and trailer on I-80 in Nebraska. The last off ramp I passed was 15 miles behind me, and the next one was 15 miles in front of me. The belt broke and I didn't have a spare. Also before cell phones, I didn't have a lot of choices. It was night time, so I left the running lights on and ran on the shoulder so I wouldn't get hit, but turned off all other electrical loads. I'd accelerate gently up to about 50-55 MPH, shut it off and coast to about 10 MPH and do it again. I covered 15 miles, and the temp never went over 220. In fairness, it was flat terrain and the Blazer has a engine driven fan so there was some circulation from the free-wheeling fan in the airflow, and there was the inertia from the 4,000 pounds of trailer during the coast-down. But I made it, and I found a repair shop that had the belt at 2100 on a Thursday evening in Nowhere NB. I'd still be out there waiting for a tow truck.