busted serpentine belt tensioner (?)
 

My steering and brakes became very stiff while driving on our first day under 30 degrees today. Battery light came on, too. Serpentine belt (is that the correct name for it?) is slack. The pulley (also probably not its proper name) below the alternator fly wheel (second one down and a bit toward the centerline, on the passenger side) looks like it exploded. It also looks like it was plastic. What is the correct name for this part, and is this something I can replace without special tools or significant dissassembly? The belt looks like it got a bit dinged up, but not too bad. Can I keep it? As I've said in past posts, my skills are pretty new, but I'm willing to go for it, so the more detail on repair, the more I am likely to get it right.

You should be able to do this yourself with some common tools and a little patience. Take the old belt off and throw it behind your seat for an emergency. Get a new one, it's just not worth the risk.
I suspect that you are talking about the tensioner that keeps the belt tight. You may as well replace the whole thing. While you are in there feel all of the pulleys and make sure they are not sloppy or have alot of wiggle in them, and that everything except the crankshaft pulley turns freely without any funny sounds.
You will also notice that the fan has a space betwen 2 certain blades that has more room thatn between the others. Turn the fan so that you are working in the widest gap between the blades, no sense in making it hard.
If you have more questions just post back here again and we should have you going in no time.

Thanks for the input. Any thoughts on the part number or exact name of the part so I can get a new one. The busted part is actually gone so I can't use it to select a repalcement. I don't have a manual or photo of this part of the engine. I have been printing off members' engine compartment photos, labled to show what's what, but this isn't something I've been able to find (yet).

Is this just a matter of pulling the bolt from the center of (what's left of) the broken part and putting a new one in place? Is there an order to the replacement to make it easier? How do I put the tension back into the system after I thread the new belt? Is there an amount of give it should have, like 1/2 inch when pushed by hand or something like that?

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Is this just a matter of pulling the bolt from the center of (what's left of) the broken part and putting a new one in place? ]

yes, I just replaced mine a few months ago. I bought mine at CarQuest....can't remember if it was $70 or around $100.....pretty sure one or the other. Tell them you need the "belt tensioner assembly" mine came with a new pulley.

There is a little pin on the back of the new tensioner, be sure you get it in the little hole, this is what make the spring work......its a 5 minute job using one wrench and then a rachet to put the belt on

good luck

Hey I guess on what you truck but autozone carries them.I am pretty sure this is what you need.You can also just get the pully too

http://www.autozone.com/R,APP880622/...ductDetail.htm

while your at it I would replace the other two pulleys as well. Then you know you won't have one of those pulleys go bad anytime soon. Very easy job. There are some fairly specific instructions somewhere on this forum. I will see if I can find the and get a link.

DONE!

Thanks for the help. Without FTE input, I probably would have bailed on the repair. This is the second job I've done thanks to FTE. Now if I could just convince my wife to let me spend the savings . . . on the truck!