850 Can the idler pulley bearing be replaced?

[JimBee]

My idler pulley is making a loud rasping noise, even when spinning it by hand with the belt off. It seems tight enough, though not binding. Just dried out I suppose. So the question is, can the bearing only be replaced (it's not the tensioner, but the fixed idler).

I've searched and can't find any specifics on this.

Has anyone replaced that bearing? Is there a known ordering number?

[cn90]

Yes...

https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... hp?t=53722

Now if you are talking the bearing itself, I don't recommend it, simply b/c:
1. You have to press the old bearing out
2. Drive new bearing in
3. And at 20 years old 200K, the outer plastic wheel (that houses the actual bearing) is in need of replcement anyway.

So, get the new Volvo 9146139 and move on.
Rmeuropean sells the F.A.G. brand for $37.

[JimBee]

The DIY'r in me beckons for the bearing replacement. I get what you're saying, of course. The plastic would likely be kind of brittle after turning under stress for many thousands of hours.

Yet, a friend has a press. If the bearing is 5 to 10 bucks I might give it a try. Has anyone heard of one of these pulleys failing, actually disintegrating? They must be made of a type of poly that will wear but not shatter, even when exposed to heat over long periods.

My bearing actually feels tight—i.e., spins freely but no side play or wobble, but is very noisy, even spinning it by hand. Maybe the grease needle somebody suggested would soothe it for a while. I've never seen one but I guess the auto suppliers sell them. Since I work on the car outside this is not the opportune time to get into much of a project (though yesterday was perfect; a Volvo buddy down the street and I changed out our heater cores). Temps now predicted to drop for a while. Well, it's winter in Minnesota, so no surprise there.

[cn90]

Get a syringe and an 18-gauge needle.
Fill the syringe with 1 inch of grease.
Lift the seal up a bit and inject some grease.

[precopster]

Just don't damage the delicate seal. The smallest nick in the seal will spill a lot of grease in 10,000 miles.

[abscate]

Politely put, this is a bad place to DIY. Too many ways for this to get ugly.

..and this is from a guy who strains old outboard gearbox oil through TP from work because I'm too cheap to use my own...

[JimBee]

Politely put, this is a bad place to DIY. Too many ways for this to get ugly.

..and this is from a guy who strains old outboard gearbox oil through TP from work because I'm too cheap to use my own...

TP aside, are you saying don't try to regrease the bearing, or don't replace it, or both? And not to get too scientifically picky, but based on what evidence would you not replace the bearing?

[erikv11]

I did finally choose to replace one of these, in December I noticed the one on my V70 (250k) was a little noisy and found some freewheeling. I swapped in a full tensioner assembly from the junkyard that was still tight and quiet on both pulleys.

It is so rare to need this repair, I would probably go with the new bearing if I didn't have such easy access to working, factory ones. I am parting out another 850 now, both pulleys are tight so now I have another spare.

[abscate]

Politely put, this is a bad place to DIY. Too many ways for this to get ugly.

..and this is from a guy who strains old outboard gearbox oil through TP from work because I'm too cheap to use my own...

TP aside, are you saying don't try to regrease the bearing, or don't replace it, or both? And not to get too scientifically picky, but based on what evidence would you not replace the bearing?

If the tensioner is noisy I would replace with a new or good used tensioner in hand. I could kind of seeing no risk in injecting grease into a noisy bearing, but once it is making noise I think its too late for regreasing to save it.