603 motor serp belt tensioner / idler query

[GuyFawkes]

To be clear this is non-turbo straight six diesel in a 1986 W124 body as a 300D. Just purchased by me.

Has the rattle and looking down from above has the "skewed" idler pulley in support of previous owners suggestion that same was on the way out.

Purchased from GSF one M17110 (GSF ref) INA brand 80 mm dia idler, with bearing but otherwise bare in the box, allegedly the right thing as all they do nowadays is is "That the car out front?" and the type in the reg number orwellian style.

Looking under bonnet can see the radiator cowl clips, and looks like with a little care there is enough room to do the job without disturbing the (viscous) fan, but, and here is the query.....

The exposed / front / radiator side of the *fitted* idler pulley appears to the touch to be flat / solid, eg not presenting the expected fastener, whether it be a bolt head or socket screw head, to remove, so what am I missing? Is there some sort of cap to pry off, or have I bought a magic "they all do that sir" all-in-one tensioner that has to be replaced complete.

While we're at it if anyone can recommend a shop manual (source for same) for this baby I'd be grateful for the link.

Cheers

 

[Number_Cruncher]

Yes, there's a plastic cap.

Are you sure the skew is in the bearing itself, or, in the pivot for the tensioner arm?

 

[GuyFawkes]

To be honest I haven't looked that deep, yet, main idea was let the dog see the rabbit and see if there were any gotchas like "where's the bolt then" Thanks♠

 

[Dieselman]

As Number Cruncher says there is a plastic cap, then just unbolt the pulley with an allen key. I not sure you can get the pulley off without removing the arm, in which case the fan blades need to come off.

 

[GuyFawkes]

8mm allen key to remove viscous fan centre bolt, water pump pliers on edge of pulley to hold while breaking bolt.

6mm allen key to remove idler pulley.

13mm spanners for the serp belt tension adjustment.

13mm spanner for top of damper (which was also gone)

10mm spanner for lower end of damper, remove water pump pulley (4 x 10mm spanner) to be able to withdraw lower damper bolt.

Idler was 12 quid from GSF and damper was 20 quid.

hot coffee to wash down bacon & egg sandwich with brown sauce.

TOP TIP

Don't even think about changing belt or idler or anything without first removing viscous fan, with it in place access and vision is terrible, with it removed access and vision is excellent.

I wasted at least 30 minutes and skinned knuckles and started losing my temper by trying to do the job quickly with the fan in place.
Time served engineer so no excuse either.