What is an overdrive pulley?

97 Buick LeSabre 3.8 series ii Drive Belt Tensioner and pulley?

• I bought this hunk of junk 2 days ago. The owner had replaced the belt and the tensioner. The belt was squeeking but he said it would go away when it broke in a little bit. It got worse, and now is a ear piercing scream. I was able to quiet it down with some spray lubricant at the pulley attached to the tensioner, but it is only temporary. I checked belt routing on Alldatadiy,com and it is routed correctly. But it doesn't explain how to move the tensioner to slip the belt on without inadvertantly tightening the pulley bolt. The pulley bolt calls for 37 lbs/ft. I found the alternator was squeeking, so I replaced it, I replaced the pulley on the tensioner and now it is worse, I also ended up stripping the bolt in the pulley, so now it won't get tighter, yes I realize it tightens counter clockwise. How do I move the pulley with the tensioner trying to go the other way, without also tightening the pulley at the same time? I tried using leverage but the alternator fins are too close to the tensioner. Also is the tensioner bracket supposed to be behind the alternator? Thanks for the help

• Answer:

  I actually have a serpentine belt tool made by gearwrench that helped me on a 3.8 olds 88 royale. You might also have glaze on the belt that is making is squeel. Use a spray bottle with water and spray the belt. If the belt stops making noise, the belt is bad and must be replaced. UPDATE: If I remember correctly, I thought I used a square hole in the tensioner that I plugged a square 3/8 or 1/2 drive tool in and turned on it to rotate the tensioner. You can always go to a library and look it up in a manual.