So, my tensioner pulley decided to go flying off of my car. I need to move my car about 20 miles. Can I wrap a bungie cord or a belt around the crank pulley and the alternator to move it? Or will they not hold?


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You might make it....to the end of your driveway....if your driveway is very short!
That isn't going to work.

 

Not going to work because it'll slide off? I mean, I can drive the car, as I have the stock water pump and fan, but I don't want to kill my battery... Or am I SOL until I get that pulley?

And for that matter, how difficult is it to replace the tensioner pulley?


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A bungee won't work, it has no strength and would just stretch. And just going from the crank to the alternator bypasses the water pump, overheating the engine. Replacing the idler isn't too hard, just held on with one bolt. The bolt didn't snap off did it? Also, my LT1 in the Vette has two idler pulleys (one stationary, one tensioner). Yours too? It would be smart to replace them both while you're at it. The bearings on mine, with 100k miles, were dry as a bone.

 

That makes sense, but isn't the LT1 water pump driven by the timing chain? I think I only have one pulley... But I will check.


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Yeah, I had a momentary "duh" moment (pardon the redundant redundancy) with the water pump. And I already replaced mine with the opti too (that's when I checked the idlers).
It's tuff wearing an old school hat and new school hat at the same time I guess. It's been a long day!

 

The pulley that is broken is the tensioner, but I think the bolt might have broken. If that is the case, then what do I do?


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Do you have the old bolt to see that it snapped, or can you see part of the bolt in the tensioner? I have yet been lucky enough to have a bolt snap above the surface where it can be grabbed with a pliers. They're sneaky that way, and know to snap below level. Why did the bolt snap anyway? Was it already loose maybe and got tweaked? That could have egged out and ruined the threads in the tensioner, or maybe not if you're lucky. You might also get lucky and be able to tap/spin the bolt out with a center punch and hammer. Done that a few times before.

 

Yeah, it snapped off while I was racing a SN-95 (which I still beat, btw...). All I see is a square peg where the pulley was...


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Back to your original post, why do you have to move the car 20 miles before getting the idler fixed? Or are you taking it in to get fixed? Do you have someone who can follow you? Put your battery on a charger overnight, have someone give you a jump start so you don't suck as much juice from the battery, use no accessories, and you might get lucky and make it running off the battery. I'd also bring a spare fully charged battery along as back up. Steering the car with no power assist won't be simple to do though. And of course, getting stuck in traffic, or having the fans kick on will pretty much kill your chances of making it.