oobnuker

Hey - first post here. Picked up a 2001 Maxima that had been sitting for a while. Long story short, it runs great but has, what I have gathered, a lot of typical problems with this car: RUST, front engine mount point rusted out, passenger floor rusted out and completely missing, blinking air bag lights, blah blah..

I knew the belts needed to be replaced but I left them on until I was forced to replace. The AC/Alternator belt broke and I replaced it. This solved the squealing when engaging the AC... for a few weeks. Then I noticed it started squealing again, so I figured the belt had stretched and I tightened it a little.

A couple of weeks go by and now I have a constant squealing sound so I took another look and noticed that the new belt is worn on the inside edge, and the crank pulley is wobbling. So I am assuming from all that I have read that the crank pulley is separating and needs to be replaced.

Obviously I will have to replace the AC belt again.

One question I have though is about the tensioner. It looks like the pulley does not sit squarely on the belt and I wanted to confirm that this is how it is supposed to be. I would think that the pulley should make 100% contact with the belt, but it looks like one "rib" worth of the belt is not in contact with the pulley. This also corresponds with the edge of the belt that is now frayed.

It seems like putting this pressure on 75% of the belt and leaving that portion out of contact would contribute to wear or am I wrong?

Is this a common problem and I just need to replace the tensioner assembly while I'm at it?

The car has 230,000 miles on it, is rusted to **** and when I tried to jack it up at the stock jack point the car basically started going up, and then stopped and I realized the jack was still going and starting to just crumple the jack point. This car is a rust bucket and I don't want to spend another dime on it that doesn't need to be spent.... So if tensioner sits a little off center with the belt by design and that's that, that's great. If it is supposed to sit 100% in contact with the belt and I need a new one, then so be it.

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks!

oobnuker

I ordered a new crank pulley and crank seal the other day. Should be here Wednesday.

oobnuker

I also realized the thread title doesn't match my question. I am fairly set on replacing the crank pulley at this point anyway since it is wobbling and I can see frayed material coming from the center between the two sections.

Just wondering about the tensioner.

freezer

The belt should not be off the edge of the tensioner pulley. Once you have the new crank pulley on, check the alignment again and hopefully it lines up properly. Otherwise you have more repairs to do.

oobnuker

Thanks for the response. I took a closer look today and it looks like the outer pulley portion is walking inward and pulling the belt off track with it. Wednesday can't come soon enough!

Thanks again.

ffcbairn

Yep that is the mode of failure of our CPs. If it is wobbling do not run it like that, it will break and that outer ring can potentially come off. When mine went it thankfully only broke the belt but it is a lot of force there, and with the power steering, alternator, compressor, and oil filter nearby you don't want to take the chance. I replaced with the unorthodox racing LW/UDP. I was not disappointed. Don't forget to change the gasket.

oobnuker

Thanks. Yeah I'm not going to lie, I drove with it wobbling for a week and about 400 miles. I checked it daily - not that that is any great measure of safety.

I did the repair last night. I used the starter bump method to get the bolt off. My crank pulley had completely separated but was still "together". I basically followed all of the advice in the various threads I have read about this:

I turned the crank so the key was facing up and did not fall into the timing cover.

I replaced the seal while I was there.

I tried to loosen the power steering pump but did not have an offset wrench to get the front set screw loose so I just "Cheated" the power steering belt onto the pulley by turning the crank and guiding the belt on.

I replaced the AC/Alternator belt.

My idler pulley now lines up correctly.

The biggest challenge was torquing the bolt back on. I tried jamming a screwdriver into the crank pulley and turning it until it stopped and was able to torque it to 60ft/lbs. Then I whacked the breaker bar with a dead blow hammer a few times and marked the bolt and pulley with a dot of paint.

I drove it to a friend's house and hit it with an impact wrench. I am most likely going to be the last owner of the car so if I have to do it again, it's my own fault. But I didn't want to monkey around any more and I'm confident the bolt is not coming off now.

Thanks for the advice in this and various other threads on here.

The repair only took about an hour.