Serpentine/Accessory belt failure on a very wet, dark MI road in the middle of nowhere...

[Longtrail]

Is that the vacuum pump?

No idea! It's the passenger side of the crank pulley, will know more when I start pulling things apart!

 

[Longtrail]

Check all your pulleys and make sure they don't wobble.
Any pulley that is out of alignment, will throw the belt.

Yep will do, won't get to disassembly probably until tomorrow evening. So far the passenger side idler feels OK, as does the alternator, I didn't get to test the other ones yet... Will report back. Thanks.

 

[jlglr4]

No idea! It's the passenger side of the crank pulley, will know more when I start pulling things apart!

That’s the vacuum pump, but I’m not sure what those little copper colored beads are in the photo.

 

[Longtrail]

That’s the vacuum pump, but I’m not sure what those little copper colored beads are in the photo.

Ball bearings...

 

[Rover Range]

Ball bearings...

Probably came out of one of your idler pulleys.

 

[itsaguything]

If it's the original belt, 12 years is a good run IMO. From what I read the fan belt needs to come off to get the serpentine belt in, so you might as well replace that one too while you're there. Consider doing the water pump now too since the belts will be out of the way (though that requires draining the cooling system). The crossover pipes you can do later (at the expense of draining the system again). "If you give a mouse a cookie"...

in fact, overdue for a change.

 

[jlglr4]

Ball bearings...

Ah…not sure why that didn’t occur to me. So strange to see them just sitting there. That seems like good evidence of a pulley failure as Rover Range points out.

 

[MellonRover]

If you just need the pulley, you can get a littens one from advance auto for $20 rather than the near $200 for the whole tensioner. I had a post a month or two ago about it, with part number.

 

[Longtrail]

Probably came out of one of your idler pulleys.

Should know more later, I wasn't able to get to it last night. The passenger side idler runs very smoothly... It has me thinking that these bearings could have been in there for a while. As soon as I know more I'll post back. Thank you.

 

[Longtrail]

in fact, overdue for a change.

Absolutely agree, unfortunately I don't know the complete history so I'm working my way through everything as I can. I was planning to do the water pump as part of the bigger overhaul (timing chains, crossovers, water pipes, anything else I can figure while I'm in there). So my plan is to install new belts and figure out if things are OK. If they are OK then I'll move on to the bigger job but it doesn't seem worth ordering all the parts until I know the fundamentals are OK.