How to Replace Serpentine Belt Idler Pulley 1999-2008 Chevy Silverado

If you were to look right down here, you're gonna see a clamp. If you were to look at the other end where connects onto the throttle body, you're gonna see another clamp. You can go ahead and loosen those up. Also, if you come right up here, you're gonna see an 8-millimeter bolt. If you loosen that up, you can take this right out. Once you have that out of the way and the clamps are loosened, you can wiggle this around. I'm gonna draw it off of the throttle body right here, and I'm gonna take them right there. Take it off of right here, remove it from the vehicle.

So now that we have the intake and the little shell out of the way here, it gives us a nice, clear view. You don't necessarily need to take off the shell, but I just like to have it out of the way. Go ahead and relieve your tension like that. And then I'm just gonna take the belt off of the idler pulley here and then I can let go of that. We'll get our serpentine belt tool right out of the way. Let's go ahead and remove the belt. To get started on your idler pulley, one of the best things you wanna do is to compare your new one to your old one. You wanna make sure that it's overall the same diameter, which would be the length right here from top to bottom, and you also wanna make sure that the depth is approximately the same. That's gonna be the area where the belt's gonna ride. This looks great, so let's get ready for an install.

Now we're gonna use a 15-millimeter socket, remove the mounting bolt. There it is. So now looking at the backside of it, you can see the area that's holding the mounting bolt in. It's like a little clippy do. It's a single time use and we're gonna break it off. Just going to hit it with some penetrant, let that sit for a second. Now I'm gonna grab some of these cutters and I'm gonna try to grab on to any of these ears I can, try to peen them up and rip this off. You can also use a pocket screwdriver, try to get under there. There we are. We can start separating everything. We'll pull this spacer right off of there. We're gonna reuse that. Grab this stuff, just like that.

Now we're gonna take our new pulley, our old adapter. This is the spacer that goes in between the pulley and the engine itself. We'll put that right along the backside. It should fit right in. That's great. Take it like this. Start the bolt through and now go ahead and start it right into the engine. Go ahead and torque it to 37 foot-pounds. Go ahead and take one side, go down and around the passenger side of the water pump, which is this right here, and then put it over the crank, which is the main pulley over there. I'm just gonna circle it, put it on, then slide it around.

I'm gonna take one and I'm gonna come up and over the tensioner right here. And then the other side, I'm gonna bring it down and around the water pump. And then underneath the power steering pump, it's gonna fit right inside the ribs perfectly. Then I'm gonna come up, make sure it's sitting in those ribs. There it is. Come up over the alternator right here. This looks good. Make sure everything's situated approximately where it needs to be. That looks great. I'm gonna grab my tensioner tool. Put it on there. Relieve tension.

Now we'll take this, bring it right in underneath the idler pulley. This is your idler pulley. Get our tool off, give it a nice tug. And then of course double-check all of your pulleys. Every one of them that has the rib side that goes up against the belt, you need to make sure it's sitting perfectly inside the ribs. If you're wondering what your belt routing should look like, you can find it right on the front. Get our air intake back on here. It's gonna go right underneath this hose here. Line it up there. Grab this, slide it in, push it all the way in so it's up against the whole throttle body. Make sure your clamps are nice and tight. Your hose over here should have a little clippy do. Ours is actually broken, but it's gonna push in right there and that'll hold it secure. This cover back on here, just slide it all the way back so it's sitting inside the pitons. Put this down and tighten up your bolt.