How To Change Ac Idler Pulley Gen 3 4runner

PIG20 [OP] New Member

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So, yesterday I decided to replace my drive belts as well every bit the AC idler pulley every bit it was noisy and probably the original pulley. I also needed to go the belts off every bit I saw some play on my harmonic balancer. Wanted to get a better look at it and see if there was any physical crank shaft motility (which there wasn't). The balancer bushing is probably merely worn out.
Nevertheless, that'southward not my problem. My problem is that when I was loosening tension on the Air conditioning idler pulley, sure plenty, the bolt head for the tensioner snapped. Ok, so, no large bargain. I'g replacing the idler pulley anyway. I'll just accept to go a new bolt.

Well, that's where things went completely south. And an 60 minutes long chore turned into an all day chance, and withal no full solution however.

I was able to get the pulley off simply fine. Nonetheless, there is a metal collar that goes onto the bolt before inserting the pulley. That metal collar should theoretically slide off the pulley bolt then you remove the bolt from the back of the bracket. Well, of course that metal collar is now seized and fused with the pulley bolt.

Since there is hardly any room in there, using a grinder was not an option. So I tried a Dremel. The angle of the bolt is not platonic for the orientation of a Dremel. I sliced at the collar for hours just hoping it would gratis itself. Nope. I then thought virtually cut a clamper of the summit office of the bracket and sliding the bolt out through the cutout pigsty. And so JB Weld the slice back in. However, I felt there needed to be a ameliorate way than that. I would have loved to pull the whole bracket out but that would consist of removing the entire Ac Compressor. Which I absolutely exercise not want to exercise. I'll run it to a store before I practise that.

So afterward I walked away in defeat last night, I started Googling. I found that at that place is an attachment for my Dremel that turns the Dremel to a 90 degree angle and allows it to act as a standard grinder. Then now I can actually try to cut the bolt from behind the collar as there is a little bit of room between the collar and the subclass. So offset thing this morning time was a trip to Lowes to selection upwards the part and some heavy duty cutting wheels.

Not certain if I'thousand going to try over again tonight or look until tomorrow? However, wish me luck! I will study back with pictures and prove of the massacre.
Projects! Steady as you go. Good luck my friend.
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Welp, she's off! The angled Dremel tool did the flim-flam! 30 minutes of work whereas I spent over 4 hours on Sunday simply nicking at the damn thing with no results. Very happy camper here!
Hither is a flick of the aftermath....

https://imgur.com/bqdJwzM
Ahdofu New Fellow member

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Thanks for sharing the post mortem pic. Several days ago I struggled in removing the idler bolt on Air conditioning also. I had a lucky pause though. I concluded up spraying the commodities with some seafoam penetrating oil, waited for a day and that did it.
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Yeah, I did spray se PB Blaster on the bolts the 24-hour interval prior. Unfortunately, that tensioner commodities was also far seized. Even afterward I cut it out, I tried holding it in a vice and using vice grips to turn the spiral with no move. She was washed for.
The collar was a "no go" as well. I could see the seizing/frozen points on the metallic. Maybe a torch could take helped but there was just as well much in the way for me to attempt that. The oil pan, compressor, and some plastic pieces were around in that location. Just didn't even want to hazard making the problem worse than it was.

Either style, simply got my new parts and information technology only ran $75 for everything at Toyota. I'm good with that. And it was the original, 23 year old pulley. So it definitley needed to be replaced.

I program on putting everything dorsum together tomorrow and also putting on some new drums that I ordered. I did the shoes over the summer and kept the old drums. Afterwards putting some miles on the new shoes, the old drums are definitely besides far gone. Time for new ones.
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So, simply an update. I got the parts from Toyota and she's all dorsum together. All the same, that being said, at that place was still a trivial fabrication needed on my end in order to fit the new tensioner bolt.
They give you a really long tensioner commodities, however, the crossmember below the tensioner bracket keeps you from being able to install the bolt.

So to remedy this situation, I had to cut a full inch off the end of the tensioner commodities in order for it to have enough clearance to fit past the crossmember and into the bracket.

Fortunately, later cutting there is nonetheless plenty threads to grab into the pulley bolt when putting everything back together. The simply thing I can remember as to why this is, is because when the pulley was initially installed at the factory, it's probably installed onto the compressor bracket before the bracket was installed into the truck.

Never thought something so minor would exist such a hassle to replace. Oh well, maybe others tin learn from my experience. Just glad the ordeal is over with.
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Not sure what you mean by cross member here. One of the tensioner bolts is covered by the Air-conditioning bracket. You're supposed to dismantle the AC, remove the subclass before you can reach the bolt. There is too a fashion to do this by not removing the bracket but y'all've have to be under the machine, and be patient in placing a socket on the bolt using a long extension that runs through a small-scale gap on the Ac bracket. I have always removed the bracket in doing mine.
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How did you remove the bracket without removing the Air-conditioning compressor? Or are yous telling me that is what you lot do?
Or is information technology possible that nosotros're talking almost two totally different things? In my setup, in that location is only ane tensioner commodities for the idler pulley and information technology'south non covered up by annihilation. You tin can access information technology just fine with a ratcheting wrench from underneath. The problem comes when information technology snaps in half while loosening like it did in my situation.

There is definitely a crossmember that runs underneath idler pulley. And due to the length of the tensioner bolt, when trying to insert it into the caster bracket, the crossmember gets in the way and forces information technology to become in at an bending.

So my options where to remove the subclass completely (which looks to entail removing the AC compressor) or cut an inch off the stop of the bolt so that the crossmember no longer impedes the tensioner bolt from going into the pulley bracket. Which worked like a charm.

Last edited: April nineteen, 2021
negusm New Fellow member

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I take removed that bracket several times without disconnecting the Air-conditioning. Yous have to remove the Air-conditioning compressor from the bracket but you do Not accept to completely remove the AC compressor from the car. It's a pain and I have to use some crazy combination of my 3/viii and i/2 sockets and deep wells to practice it and a few wrenches.
I, for the life of me, can't meet how you become to the tensioner from underneath the machine.

I for ane, would non always shorten the commodities. I wouldn't want to argue with a Toyota engineer equally to why they engineered the length of the commodities to the length it is.
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The tensioner was quite like shooting fish in a barrel to access from underneath really. Hither is a video of the exact procedure of doing information technology the style I did information technology. Of form, this isn't showing the bolt head snapping off. If I had to say which one gave me the near trouble accessing, it was that power steering pump tensioner. I had to contort my paw and pretty much find information technology blind. I tin can't tell yous how many times I dropped my ratchet wrench on that one. It would have probably been easier had I removed the fan just I decided to take the hard road.
https://youtu.exist/Zi1XfFUOjKc?t=903

Near the bolt itself, there is however a skillful inch or and then of bolt thread coming through the acme of the tensioner. So with the pulley torqued down, I cant see how cutting about an inch off the commodities is going to take whatever negative effect whatsoever.

The only way for information technology to fail would exist is if the pulley loosened with almost 30 lbs of torque backside information technology and and then almost 2 inches of tensioner bolt backing itself out on its own. Hell, the bolt they sold me wasn't even a pure match of the ane that was on the truck even though the part number is exactly what it's supposed to be. It was a lilliputian longer than the original. And so information technology's probably not an exact science here.

Regardless, all of the diagrams and the very few threads on the internet I found on the subject stated that the compressor needed to be removed in social club to remove the subclass. Obviously, yous're telling me otherwise. I guess I'll know better next time...

The pulley was the original 23 year erstwhile, OEM part. So at this point, I'm banking on this 1 lasting for the life of the truck. Or if the pulley goes bad, I can replace the pulley without having every other role of it seized.
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OK yous're talking well-nigh the alternator pulley belt tensioner whereas I was talking about the timing belt tensioner.
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This is actually the AC idler caster tensioner. The alternator tensioner is backside the alternator which gave me no problems.
Yeah, I wouldn't be fabricating or doing anything out of the ordinary if it were related to the timing parts. No fashion I'd become exterior the box with that stuff.
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Ahdofu New Member

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