Spider's Tweety Bird Resolved

["Rob Favali" <favali@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

To All ...

After I posted my last message, the sound had grown into a very loud and
unnerving squeal. Well, combine a failing A/C compressor bearing with a
dysfunctional magnetic clutch, and a serpentine belt being strained and you
get a horrible loud squeal. I replaced the belt and disconnected the power
to the compressor and all is well again. Actually the sound ended with the
new belt but I disconnected the mag clutch wire for assurance.

I had questioned if I could replace the serp belt and bypass the A/C
compressor but from my view it seems that the idler pulley is designed to
take the belt from one direction only. Hence to re-reroute the belt around
the crank pulley, over the idler and p-steering pump would require replacing
the idler with a different style. Also it appears that a different lower
radiator hose would be required to make room for the belt. I have never used
the A/C and I do not want to remove it but the thought of bypassing the
pulley is of interest.

One question remains: not having the tension tool the AR Manual suggest, do
I resort to the "pull of the belt" (feel) method to confirm the correct
tension on the belt?

Thanks to all for the help both on-Digest and off.

Rob Favali
Burlington VT
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided