Hi. I am trying to change the water pump in my 1998 Malibu, 3.1L V6. The
bearing is squealing like crazy, although there is no leakage of coolant
that I can see. It looks pretty straightforward, but for the life of me, I
cannot get the tensioner to move so I can get the belt off the water pump
pulley.

I see the hole for a 3/8" breaker bar, but I cannot get the tensioner loose
enough to remove the belt, and I'm not sure which way to pry it. It looks
like it should swing toward the front of the car. I tried loosening the
alternator bolts and removing them, but it did not help.

Any advice or links to sites that show a detailed procedure would be great.
Thanks for any help.

Sharky

Well, I managed to answer some of my own questions because I went back out
this afternoon and got the water pump changed. Now I just have to figure
out why the tensioner will not stay in place. When I started the car, all
was fine, until suddenly I heard the belt stop spinning and a few seconds
later the battery light came on. I looked under the hood and lo and behold
the tensioner was swung back toward the firewall with no pressure on the
belt whatsoever.

What is the trick with this tensioner? At first, I couldn't get it to
loosen, now I can't get it to tighten. BTW, at one point this morning in an
attempt to loosen it, I did loosen the bolt that holds the tensioner to the
bracket. But I know damn well I retightened it, so it shouldn't have let
go. I will recheck in the morning, but if there is something I am missing,
please someone fill me in.

Thanks
Sharky

"Sharky" <cleighton (AT) NOSPAM (DOT) eastlink.ca> wrote in
news:Urb5h.531$_Z2.175@edtnps89:

sounds like the spring inside the tensioner finally broke

get a new tensioner
KjunRaven wrote:

Had nothing to do with the tensioner after all. I found out the morning
after the belt had come off what really happened. When I opened the hood
that morning, I noticed that the tensioner was swung way back, yet the belt
was still loose. So I checked the routing of the belt on the pulleys and
that's when I saw the idler pulley below the water pump was completely
missing. The belt was resting on the bearing and the pulley was laying in
the bottom of my driveway. The bearing was seized completely solid and
apparently the belt, while trying to spin that frozen bearing, ripped the
idler pulley right off the bearing and chucked it out into the driveway.

Long story short, my brother in law happened to have an old Cutlass Ciera
junked in his yard, so I pulled the idler pulley off of it and slapped it
onto my car. Today after work, I stopped at a bearing supplier in Burnside
and picked up two new bearings, one for each idler pulley on my car. Once
the new bearings are pressed in, I won't have to worry about them seizing up
again. The tensioner is working fine and everything is back to normal
again.

Only on a Chev product would the water pump AND the idler pulley bearings
both self destruct at the same time, LOL.

Sharky

"Sharky" <cleighton (AT) NOSPAM (DOT) eastlink.ca> wrote in
news:Gxs6h.3665$b07.1155@clgrps13:

new batteries for your flashlight may help next time and possibly
glass's........jeeesh