I was looking at my motor today - stock serpentine setup. I deleted smog pump, and redirected belt according to the tech article. Now I'm thinking about A/C delete (I tried to get it working with R134a and had no luck, and I don't use A/C anyway, so it sure would clean up the bay ).

I know most do an A/C delete pulley. But I was thinking - if the idler pulley is taken out of the works, is the A/C delete pulley necessary?

Is the idler pulley necessary? V-belt setups don't have one - just tighten alternator, ps pump, etc. to get a tight belt.

Bounce back your thoughts!

 

Yes, the serpentine belt setup absolutely requires an idler pulley. On the V-belt setups, the accessories are movable to provide the tension on the belt. On serpentine setups, the accessories are fixed and the idler pulley is movable to provide the tension. It is on a spring-loaded arm that provides the necessary tension on the belt. The only way to remove the idler pulley is to switch to a V-belt setup. That would require swapping out the brackets and accessories as well as your crank and water pump pulleys. To remove the A/C compressor on your engine, you would need an A/C delete pulley. If you could move the alternator to the passenger's side of the engine you might be able to get away with using a shorter belt. I can't remember offhand how the belts are routed on those engines. I know its possible on the V6 engines.