Stripped The Idler Pulley Assembly

[96RS Alex]

Performed a Search, not much to go on besides the known and applied fact that the bolt that supports the idler pulley is reverse threaded.

I was in the process of changing the pulley itself using the Lefty Tighty Righty Loosey way when it no longer backed out. It was stripping in the act.

I managed to remove the bolt by Lefty Loosey and now I have the pulley still retained on the bracket but the female threads are shot now.

Question: Since the bracket that holds the pulley is shot, how or what is required to remove the bracket itself? I started removing 4 or 5 bolts just below the idler pulley assembly. Looks like it's part of the A/C unit and I don't feel certain I should go any deeper. Another question comes to mind: Is the bracket metal a good canidate to do a Helicoil set up? Seems to be a white cheap lightweight metal, not sure what it is.

So I put the bolts back in to check with you guys and used a 610K6 belt to bypass the Idler pulley and A/C pulley. Nice trick but my battery gauge swings wildly now, shows that it undercharges to the red zone only when I reach past a certain amount of over-rev between my M5 shifts. Cruising at 65-70 mph the battery gauge charges properly at 5th gear. Wonder why it does that too? Belt is very snug and the tensioner is applying pressure for that 1 inch play that's required.

I am heading to my local pick & pull junkyard to see any 3.8L motors lying around for references. I'd like to see if anyone went through this before and their resolutions. Seems to me the stock belt routing design is the best way to keep my 270K motor happy.

I should add that the light brown dust that is covering some parts of my engine and discoloring my serpentine belt and pulleys is coming from the A/C clutch unit which is $219 at Autozone. I have a dilemma to resolve .

Thanks In Advance!

[vr4gasm]

Re: Stripped The Idler Pulley Assembly

just retap it alot easier than taking it all off cheaper too

[ssms5411]

Re: Stripped The Idler Pulley Assembly

X2 for the tap,or you can use the Helicoil on it , should be fine, I had to use the coil stuff on one of the lower bolts of the tensioner, because when I was running the powerdyne it got stripped out. Used the coil and it still works perfectly after 40,000 miles.

[96RS Alex]

Re: Stripped The Idler Pulley Assembly

Thanks for the advice there.

Local junkyard wanted $40 for the pick & pull part from what was an extremely clean 3.8L V6 ( junked out body ) and I decided to head to my Chevy dealership out of curiousity for the cost of the same part. The dealer said $40+ tax with a new pulley plus retaining bolt, not bad for a stealership.

The Helicoil set up is the route I will look into. Next thing I will need is to measure the stripped female thead size since it is quite large, tap it and scrape off the white metal on the male bolt somehow. I'll post my results soon.