1996 4WD Ram 2500, engine was replaced in '05 with a reman 5.9L. Threw the Idler Pulley and ate the Serpentine belt this morning.

I'm a commercial refrigeration guy, not much into automotive wrenchin'. Looking around under the hood, this seems like a fairly straight-forward job...

Swing Tensioner in to release what's left of my Belt, R&R Belt and Idler. Is there anything special I need to know before I start ripping things apart?

Thanks....

 

make sure all the pulley are aligned correctly....also check to see if any of thepully's feel siezed (with belt off) and then yes its a straight forward job and can be done in 10 minutes or less.

 

Won't be able to play with this until Wed, do you know if there's any critical Torque Spec on the Idler?

Thanks bud...

 

the way i did it is just when it gets tight, go a 1/3 turn more...and i havent had a problem

 

Tight + 1 uumph. Roger that. Thanks man. I'll post again on Wed.

 

be aware you have a tensioner pulley that swings in/out and a fixed idler pulley. don't get the wrong part.

idler pulley just unbolts/rebolts from the front.
tensioner pulley i think bolts in from the back side. i think i might have had to unbolt the coil to get to the nut on the back. can't remember, but its not hard.

 

I just did this a couple of days ago, and the tensioner pulley unbolts from the front.
I think you may have to take the coil off if you're removing the whole tensioner.

Very very easy job.

 

^good point. yeah i was talking about the whole tensioner assy, spring and all.

 

It was the bearing in the Idler that failed, causing all the happiness this morning. Hadn't intended to replace Tensioner, only Idler and Belt. Is replacing Tensioner recommended when replacing Idler & Belt? Tensioner seems okay...

 

If the tensioner has a good amount of spring to it and the bearing feels good then you don't need to replace it.
If the bearing doesn't feel too good then you can replace just the pulley.