Just a quicky. I haven't posted here for a long time due to work etc, but thought I'd pop in to offer a few words after changing one of my idler pulleys last week (the one just below and to the right of the alternator when looking from the front). First, getting hold of the part. I phone my usual local suspects (Partco and Euro Car Parts) who bizarrely had nothing listed on their parts for this, but have supplied things like water pumps for the Jeep before. So then I called Harwoods who quoted £55 inc vat, but not in stock and would take 2 days to get in.
So I resorted to ebay and got the pulley from seller PKC66. Ordered Tuesday afternoon, arrived Wednesday morning, £24 inc first class recorded delivery. Manufactured by Crown. All very good.
Now, when I came to remove the other one, which consisted of a plastic rim floating around a completely mashed centre and a shagged bearing and no balls, I found the Torx head bolt wouldn't budge. I'd read all sorts of horror stories about the Torx head stripping, and how it's almost impossible to enough pressure into the head to get the Torx driver to grip. So all I did was pull the remains of the plastic out of the way, and grip the fecker with a mole wrench, and it unscrewed straight away. New one went straight in with a proper hex head bolt.
Absolute piece of cake. What I thought was going to be a pain of a job was all over in 5 mins in the rain and wind.
Any road up, hope you're all doing good. Now that I've rejoined I'll make more effort to check in more regularly!
Pete near Brighton
