Last night I got home from a 50 mile drive and as I pulled into my driveway I heard a grinding sound from under the hood. It is engine related since it went silent when I shut off the motor. This AM I went out to check on what it was and VOILA! ! ! no grinding sound. I would love to be a genius mechanic who can fix things with my mind, but I haven't achieved that level of consciousness yet.

I get no "Charge" light, or other electrical based evidence so that mostly eliminates the alternator. Therefore, I suspect it is the A/C idler pulley so I tried to wiggle it and it didn't budge, but really isn't direct proof. Since my A/C doesn't work (which I'm not going to deal with right now) but the belt/pulley has been turning without issue, I'm figuring the A/C compressor/pulley/bearing is OK.. So, as a temporary preventative measure, I'm planning on removing the A/C belt. My question is - will it hurt the A/C compressor/pulley/bearing by not turning it? I figure it "should" be fine but a lil backup on this would be nice.

Thank you in adavnce

 

It will not damage the AC compressor to remove its belt.

 

When the refrigerant leaked out of the hole in the AC drier line, I took the belt off the compressor pulley, why have a belt drag at all if it is not being used to drive the compressor is what I say.

 

You can remove each belt in sequence and take a test drive missing one at a time to help find which pulley it relates to. It'll even fire up and drive fine without the alternator/water pump/fan belt, though you obviously don't want to drive more than 5 minutes without that one especially if you live somewhere very hot. And you'll have manual steering.

 

Thank you for the input. But wait! . . . There’s more . . .

A seemingly simple job has become a bit of an annoyance. I drove the pickup to the car wash to knock off any road yuck before I loosen the adjuster pulley to remove the A/C belt. It is about a 5 mile r/t and the noise I had heard last night did not return – but I want the belt off anyway. Simple right?

So I get under the front and loosen the long adjusting bolt – I backed it off like 10 turns and the bolt is almost turn-able by hand. I pull on the belt to make it move and no go. I push on the pulley to back it off and it won’t budge. After looking over the situation I figure I’ll check my manuals – but for this particular item there isn’t a specific instruction just “loosen the adjusting pulley”. I go back with a pry bar and a dead blow hammer – neither the pry bar nor the percussive massage did any good. Then the rain moved in.

The pic here isn’t mine (my compressor is still attached) but it gives an idea of what I believe I have – including the long adjusting bolt.

The short question is – WTF? OR . . . Am I missing something here?

P.S. Forgot to mention I even fired it up and blipped the throttle just to see of that would loosen it up - no go.

 

When I removed my compressor in my 86 4runner, I left the timing Cover loose. I'm a horrible mechanic on my best day

 

 

Loosen the center bolt on the pulley just a tad. It'll move

 

I muffed the first 22R I had not knowing about the timing chain would wear through the cover and make it look like a bad head gasket. And now the answer was right in front of me.

 

Ah Ha! So the answer was right in front of me . . .lovely. Oh well I'll get on it in the AM - Thank you.

 

The A/c stuff is real friendly, iirc the pulley bolt is the same size as the adjuster bolt. The p/s pulley bolt is 19mm and it's adjuster bolt 12mm. The alt/fan bolts are all 14mm and the long bolt inder the alt will need a wrench on one end and ratchet on the other.

 

L5wolvesf, sorry wrong pic, not very savy with computers.
Do what millball said.

 

No sweat, been there, done that – appreciate the effort.

I did

Sure was – 14mm thank you

Done, and it practically fell off – almost too easy. Much appreciated.

 

My first time I was reaching for the Hot Wrench .

Now that you under stand the concept you won`t forget

All the 3.4 adjustments are some what like that

 

I was a step or 2 from just cutting the belt off, but it is in good condition. And I sure won't forget it.