Hi, I recently put a new serpentine drivebelt on my 1987 Firebird with the 2.8l V6. However, the new belt has been smoking when going around the pulley below the alternator. The metal behind the pulley sparks occasionally as well and the metal behind it became red hot when the engine revved high. Probably a stupid question but any ideas on how to make it stop? We’ve tried losing and tightening the pulley to no avail.

 

Why do you need the idler ? Is it bearings shot ? Looks like you could toss is and run a shorter belt.

 

That idler looks to be running crooked like the bearing is shot.

 

Replace the bearing in the idler pulley. It is easy to do and is a common bearing. Remove idler from bracket, press out bearing, press in new bearing, bolt back up.

RBob.

 

Thanks for the quick replies! I’m new to cars in general (as you can probably tell) and it’s great that there’s a good community around the 3rd gens. The idler pulley bearings were indeed shot so I threw a new one on there and it’s as good as new. Thanks again.