My Ac Compressor seized the other day and I really don't feel like dealing with it right now....What I want to do is just run a belt from the Camshaft pulley to the power steering pulley and just bypass the ac compressor pulley and tensioner pulley all together. Someone told me once that he removed his tensioner pulley as it broke and was using the power steering pump/pulley to tension the belt because it apparently moves up and down... I've looked at it and I don't see how that moves. Has anyone done this or have any idea if that actually works.. I have to fix it tomorrow as I'm really not strong enough for armstrong steering so some quick advice would be super :)

thanks in advance :)

If you loosen the mounting bolts for the power steering pump you will see that it pivots.

You mean the crankshaft pulley?

Yeah, you can do that. You'll need a 40 inch, 5 rib belt if you are using the stock pulley.

If you look through one of the holes in the power steering pump pulley, there is a bolt that goes through the bracket and into the pump. Loosen that bolt, and put the belt on. Now get a pry bar in between the power steering pump and the bracket and use it to pry the pump out until the belt is tight enough. Then just tighten that bolt, and you're all done.

I just recently did this mod when my tensioner pulley broke. Stock belt size is 510 (5 rib). If you remove the tensioner pulley just simply switch to a 490 belt size and you will be fine.

On the power steering unit there are 2 bolts facing the passenger side of the car and then the one pivot bolt facing the driver side. Loosen all three bolts, slide the belt over, and then use a pry bar or similar tool to hold the power steering unit in tension. As you are holding it. tighten one of the bolts and it will stay. Remove the pry bar, and tighten the remaining two bolts.

Yeah I meant crankshaft pulley, sorry wasn't paying attention. I went back and looked at it after and figured it out. Wish I had checked this first though. I tried a 43 inch belt first, but the cr was just parked in front of my apt building so we couldn't jack it up so it was super hard to get it on then it was too big lol I got the 40 inch after though. It worked though. Everything seems fine and I have power steering again thank god lol those two days were rough :P
Thanks for the quick responses though guys :)

So can we run the tensioner with the PS and crank only???? Cause for some reason my belt keeps shredding a rib off...But The pulleys are aligned...I dont know what to do

Originally posted by baconater3000
So can we run the tensioner with the PS and crank only???? Cause for some reason my belt keeps shredding a rib off...But The pulleys are aligned...I dont know what to do

Usually it's the tensioner pulley that causes that from my experiences with it. The bearings wear and it wobbles letting the belt skip over and shredding it. I've gone through a couple of them now
You can go straight from the crank to the ps or if you have ac and want to keep it, you can remove the tensioner pulley and have the belt go around the crank ac and ps and use the ps pump to tension the belt

Bad tensioner pulley also caused me to lose a rib on the belt. Just remove that worthless POS and use the PS pump.

So I have a belt going from the crank to the ps pump and the first one slipped over on the belt and I caught it before it broke and I thought maybe I didn't tighten the bolts enough and the pump slid down in the bracket a bit and let the belt get loose. So I fixed it again and made the bolts as tight as I could and I did it again and shredded the belt. I had a friend come help me do it the third time and the belt was super tight. Maybe too tight and the bolts were ridiculously tight. I got to work and checked it before I left and the belt is only half on the ps pulley now. Took it off and the ps pulley has a bit of play in it (like in and out of the pump) is that normal or is this why my belt keep sliding over?

The PS pulley should be tight and have absolutely no play. Your pump is toast.