I just finished replacing the power steering pump. What a pain in the butt. In case anyone cares, you have to remove the PS pulley before you remove the pump, there's simply no way around it.
Anyway, I got it replaced and put everything back together, threaded the belt back on, and started it up. Everything seemed fine, the noises and leaks are gone, and all was good in the world again, but then I noticed that the idler pulley at the bottom of the engine isn't spinning. i turned off the engine and felt around. The belt is warm-ish, but not hot to the tough. The idle pulley is too hot to touch, and the power steering pulley is hot also. The idler pulley (the bottom one on the diagram) looked dusty. there was actually dust on the top of it. I wasn't able to spin it. i loosened the tension on the belt, and still couldn't spin it. I put a wrench on the center nut of the idler pulley, and I was able to turn it, but it still wouldn't spin freely as a good pulley should. When I turned it, I saw that the underside of the pulley was much cleaner than the top side. Almost as if it hadn't been turned for years. My belt looked okay. There were cracks, but none too deep.
I don't have one of those fancy tools that tells you if you have the correct tension on a belt, I just grab a crowbar and eyeball it and that's never been a problem, but could it be that the belt needs to be tighter to make the pulley engage? Or maybe the belt was too loose before and that's why there wasn't a problem with friction on a seized pulley?
Anyway, I got it replaced and put everything back together, threaded the belt back on, and started it up. Everything seemed fine, the noises and leaks are gone, and all was good in the world again, but then I noticed that the idler pulley at the bottom of the engine isn't spinning. i turned off the engine and felt around. The belt is warm-ish, but not hot to the tough. The idle pulley is too hot to touch, and the power steering pulley is hot also. The idler pulley (the bottom one on the diagram) looked dusty. there was actually dust on the top of it. I wasn't able to spin it. i loosened the tension on the belt, and still couldn't spin it. I put a wrench on the center nut of the idler pulley, and I was able to turn it, but it still wouldn't spin freely as a good pulley should. When I turned it, I saw that the underside of the pulley was much cleaner than the top side. Almost as if it hadn't been turned for years. My belt looked okay. There were cracks, but none too deep.
I don't have one of those fancy tools that tells you if you have the correct tension on a belt, I just grab a crowbar and eyeball it and that's never been a problem, but could it be that the belt needs to be tighter to make the pulley engage? Or maybe the belt was too loose before and that's why there wasn't a problem with friction on a seized pulley?