belt tensioner && fan!

[astrosafari]

hey strangers, the belt tensioner went on our 95 astro. so did the fan bearing. maybe theres a bad motor mount aswell?
i dont know.
but the tensioner is like hanging there, its all shiney from the belt.
the van started to die the other night while my dad went to pick up my mom, first the radio, then the lights then it just stalled.
so they walked home, we went back to see what was wrong, and it started so we tried to drive it home, and it stalled a block from my house.
my dad and my friend went to get a truck to pull it the rest of the way, and i waited for them, 'cause the van is dead in the middle of the road, and i got it start again, and it drove and stalled in front of my house, and rolled into the drive way, luckky ehh? well sorta. then today the 98 cavalier belt tensioner went too! so were vehicleless.
i have some question...

1) how hard is the tensioner and possibly the bracket to change? cant the shroud just be removed?

2) If the bracket has to be changed, what all has to be swapped to the other bracket?

3) will a bracket/tensioner off a 91 fit a 95? aswell as the fan?

4) whats the cost for a new/used tensioner for a 98 cavalier? and how hard is that to change?

Thanks in advanced! (:

[astronut74]

1) how hard is the tensioner and possibly the bracket to change? cant the shroud just be removed?

It's not too hard to change, it's pretty straight forward. It's just frustrating trying to get your hands in there. Removing the shroud will give you a bit more room to move around, but you CAN do it without removing the shroud. You are just going to curse more... On your 95, I believe you have the aluminum bracket. My 94 is aluminum. it's held to the engine with 3 bolts. IIRC, 2 bolts are the same size, 1 is shorter.

If the bracket has to be changed, what all has to be swapped to the other bracket?

That depends on the "new" bracket, when I got mine from the salvage yard, they kept the tensioner and the idler pulley on it, so all I had the swap was the alternator. Which reminds me, before you even start this, disconnect the battery! I didn't, and had a nice little spark shower.
When you are swapping the alternator over, there is a bolt that has a nut (9/16" I believe) on the backside of the bracket. The nut was extremely hard to get to when the bracket was on the engine, so I swapped the alternator over before I mounted the bracket to the engine. Doing it that way, made it hard to mount the bracket to the engine. The extra weight from the alternator made it hard to line up the bolt holes. If you have a helper, you should be golden. I didn't, and I cursed alot!

will a bracket/tensioner off a 91 fit a 95? aswell as the fan?

Hmmm... Not sure about this one. They did use different (steel) bracket/tensioners on earlier astro's but I don't know when the switch was. I'm also not sure what kind of bracket the newer vans use... Haven't had to mess with the fan yet either....

I can't answer your last question, but I can't imagine it would be too hard to swap out
Another thing to watch out for when you are swapping out the bracket, the dipstick tube is mounted to it as well. It uses one of the alternator bolts. Don't pull it out! It was a pain trying to put it back in it's hole when I couldn't see the hole. And if / when it does come out, make sure it's seated good. Otherwise you could have an oil leak.

So is it the tensioner that's bad? or the idler pulley? when you posted at AS.com, you mentioned it was the idler pulley. Oh yeah, and replace the belt too, even if it looks good, it's not.

[astrosafari]

right where it says belt removal. its that pully. the pully is like just loose, only a bolt through it holding it,.
thanks for all the answers.
my 91 brackets are all aluminum aswell...
thanks alot.

[SafariRob]

Astrosafari, my van is an 89, so things are different. But its idler pulley began to squeal at times. I took the serp belt off and found that the pulley's bearing was shot--the pulley had a lot of slop in it. I removed the idler assembly from the engine, clamped the arm in my bench vise, and removed the pulley center bolt. The pulley had a pressed in bearing and there was a part number on it. Out of curiosity, I went to the local parts store and ask for a bearing using the part number on the old one. To my surprise they had the bearing in stock--it cost about $5.
I used half-inch drive sockets and my vise to push out the old bearing; it was definitely bad. I used the sockets and vise again to press in the new bearing. There was nothing to it as all parts cooperated nicely.
I then reinstalled the idler on the engine and replaced the belt. Voila! The idler was as good as new.
I later found that a new idler cost $20 at Autozone. Not a bad price, but $5 and a little time rebuilt the one on my engine.

One thing to be aware of--the pulley center bolt on my 89 is left hand threaded. Also, I used a bit of thread lock compound when I put the center bolt back in. The idler has been doing its job for two years now with no problems.

[LiftedAWDAstro]

Corey, that is the idler that has a shot bearing on it. Get a new idler and belt and I would recommend replacing the tensioner while you are in there. The bolts are just threaded into the housing. When removing, go easy so you don't strip the threads out. Put some never-seize on the threads when you install them back in. For the cost of the new parts, I would not mess with used ones.
As Rob says, if you have the ability, you can press a new bearing into the idler pulley.

[astrosafari]

your a little late AWD. sorry
i have found that the 91 bracket looks much different then the 95.
the swap was very easy! but my fingers was way cold!
the bracket might bolt in the same way, but they look very differnt.
all i had to do was take the bolt off the pully, and swap it and put it back on...
its so quiet now, no fan rattling, no fan shroud rubbing, no banging and tinging. i feel good. i dont think i could have done any better, i mean for me. some one else might have done better.
but i spent $0 so suck on those haha. thanks for the tips guys.
i think the hardest part was taking out the fan shroud, and getting the bolts off the fan with out it spinning.
we'll see if i did good after my parents drive it around a bit...
thanks alot guys.

edit: ohh yea...
my dad took the cavi for an e-test, and the garage changed the pully on that while it was in there. $55! jeez. that mighta been a little harder for me, its a lot less room in there than an astro. oh yea the cavi Failed aswell :( might need a catylatic converter, or egr valve, or any thing. who knows.