Alternator Tensioner Pulley Fix

[907 Chevy]

So the tensioner pulley in my 89 committed suicide recently and apparently these pulleys are near impossible to find online, other than the pulleys that shosource sells for $100 bucks a pop plus a $40 core charge...I'm not paying $140+ for a pulley so I had to figure out some other way to make this work...

I found an idler pulley for a 2002 Kia Optima that matched pretty closely to what I thought I needed. Specs on the pulley are:

Gates part# 36238
90mm diameter
25mm width
10.2mm inner bearing diameter

The stud the original pulley mounts on is 10.33mm in diameter so I shaved it down a tiny bit with a belt sander and pressed on the new pulley with a BFH and a large socket. You'll have to test fit the tensioner assembly a couple times to see how far to press the pulley on to ensure proper alignment between the pulleys. I used a couple 7/16" washers on the backside of the pulley as spacers; I'm not entirely sure this step is necessary as the pulley isn't going anywhere and one washer would've sufficed...with 2 washers the pulley doesn't quite line up perfectly with the other pulleys.

Everything went together smoothly and the pulley has been in place for a couple weeks now and is working perfectly so far. You'll probably need a different size belt as well; a 41 1/2" belt worked for me because I deleted the AC pulley a while ago, but you'll need to measure with a length of string to find the proper belt length for your setup.

All in all this fix cost me $90 for the pulley and the belt, whereas if I would've gotten the shosource pulley it would've been $160-$170. I would've paid half as much for the pulley if I'd ordered it off Amazon so conceivably you could repair a busted tensioner pulley for $60-$70...not too shabby.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pics of this operation so hopefully my write up suffices haha. Hopefully this helps some people out...

 

[Ishodu]

You could have just got the bearing for less and just pressed it in your OEM pulley.
Don't be shocked if that bearing does last long. With a uneven surface and unknown interference fit the internal clearance might be nil.

 

[LOUDSHO92]

The bearings we offer at SHO Source are OEM Form parts so they will last a long time. The Optima pulley may not last a long because the engine is not rated for the same 7.2k the SHO can do. So the bearing may not be up for the task of handling the SHO. We have received several other pulleys because people try out other pulleys like and find out they do not do as well.