Removing tensioner pulley (just the pulley)

'09 v6
I'm trying to hunt down a slight grinding sound in my pulleys. It's not bad at all, but I want to fix it before it gets bad. I want to simply remove the pulley and repack the bearings. But every walk through I find goes through removing the alternator, loosening up the AC pump, etc.

I just want to remove the pulley from the tensioner bracket. Is this possible with like an impact wrench or something?

 

Yes but it’s reverse thread, I’ll be doing this soon myself. Righty loosy in this case.

 

I’m pretty sure it’s a sealed bearing. There's some long winded threads on what parts to get and such.

 

Job done! I repacked all of the bearings. None of them are sealed. I've replaced the bearings before but I never repacked them. It's super easy if you have the right tools. I ended up discovering that one of them had bad bearings after repacking them. So I'm replacing that one again already. It's only been about 4 years since I replaced the bearings.

 

They were sealed at some point. I just replaced all the bearings in the pulleys. All were factory original koyo and all were sealed. In that environment, open bearings will not last long, even if you re-pack them. Only $10 for that bearing and it presses out without too much force.

 

Just replace the bearings. If the little shields fall off they're bad, don't waste time with them

 

As you probably discovered, you do not need an impact wrench to get the pulley off. It has a rather low torque spec.

 

Good info.

I learned that these pulleys have shielded bearings, not sealed bearings.

From past experience on other projects, I've found that the manufacturer only puts in the very least amount of grease needed.

Popping off the shield and adding more grease is very easy...even on new bearings I've added more grease.

 

Yep. Not supposed to look like that. If that’s how you found it and put back like that you’re wasting your time.