Kind of a lot going on, just not very quickly.

Shortly before doing the front brake pads, there appeared a sort of grinding noise that periodically and varied with engine speed. My suspicion was that it was pulley related. It was suggested to me to inspect the tensioner pulley and sure enough, when I did, I found the bearing to be excessively worn and noisy.

I was sort of dreading pulling the drive belt, because I didn't want to have to remove the fan and shroud assembly, which I had read was a painful procedure, and required special tools (ot at least improvisation). Well, it turned out to be extremely easy and straightforward, and nothing out of the ordinary was needed. I just used a hex socket on a ratchet with a cheater bar to help break the initial torque. I think I had the whole thing off in 20 minutes, which includes stopping to check my progress against an online DIY or the FSM. Not bad, considering I'd never done this before.

After getting the belt off, I found that I could spin the pulley by hand and it would free wheel for a couple of seconds or more. I also found the entire front end of the engine was caked with a thick coat of gummy motor oil, especially on the tensioner arm, vacuum pump, and AC compressor.

I didn't take a "before" pic, but some time spent with an engine degreaser and pressure washer yielded a very clean engine:


Next I got to ordering some parts:


So far, so good, just waiting on a couple more things to arrive until I can get started and wrap this job up.

__________________