serpentine belt tensioner/idler replacement

[misha]

I'm pretty convinced that it have needle bearing instead of ball bearing,but not sure because there are different bearings in serpentine idler rollers.
Could be also a regular little ball bearing.

[PeteB]

Thanks, I'll probably just buy a new idler roller.

[PeteB]

A few tips on removing the serpentine belt on an 850, it sure is tight in there.
One thing to note is that the belt diagram in our owner's manual showed the
belt routing for the "older short" belt but the one on the car was the later,
longer type and was routed differently as shown here:

VOLVO-SERP.jpg (78.57 KiB) Viewed 1127 times

I didn't have a tensioner wrench and didn't feel like going underneath the car
to do it so I wrapped a 1/2" wide strip of aluminum flashing around a half inch
breaker bar end, tried it on a socket wrench and there was just too much
material to clear and get it in place. Worked with the breaker bar and I held
the aluminum shim in place with electrical tape - I'm going to get a wrench
since it is just not worth the trouble with the shim material - shim stayed in
the tensioner when I removed the wrench.
Next I removed the tensioner, again tight in there, had to use a deep socket
and if you loosen the bolt all the way then it is right up against sheet metal
and you can't get it off. Loosen it, remove the socket driver and go by hand
with the socket the rest of the way.

Started it with the belt off and the screech noise is gone - good that it is not
the timing belt.

Tensioner pulley spins very smooth and without play, but the idler has a lot of
play, so that is probably the problem. Just so happens I have one on the way
since it was my guess as the problem.

I might just go ahead and do the timing belt now since it is this far apart.

[PeteB]

Wondering how to get the idler pulley off. I'll try to find it in this online repair manual:
https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... php?t=8018

[PeteB]

There is a large black plastic cap over the 12mm bolt for the fixed idler, pry
it off and then remove the bolt with a 12 mm wrench - very tight in there.

The old idler was made by FAG embossed into the plastic pully, ball bearing
is an RSR 6003 on the new and old part. New part has INA F-551829 lettering
on the plastic part. New part looks to be of very high quality good to see that
the exact same bearing is used as OEM.