They did that so you can take it to the dealer and for YOU not to work on it.

There was a way to get to the alternator without removing the whole strut, but you did have to remove part of the suspension and it did need an alignment afterwards. There used to be a good site with info for working on the 3.4, but I gave up on repairing that thing myself a long time ago.

On the old 3.1'* you had to lift the engine to get to the spark plugs. And to change the serpentine belt as well I believe.

In 1970 GM came out with the Original H-bodies, the Chevrolet Vega and Pontiac Astre.
I think these cars were introduced at about the same time the original TV series Mission Impossible came out because their all aluminum engines self destructed in about 5 seconds. In 1975, GM came out with the H-Body derivatives, Chevrolet Monza, Buick Skyhawk, and the Oldsmobile Starfire until 1980. In 1976 Pontiac called there 'H' the Sunbird They shoved a 262 (4.2L) and, I think a 305 (5.0L) engines as options in these cars. The problem was that you had to lift the engines off their mounts to get to the #8 spark plug. GM'* response to the owners was that you only had to do this only after ( I think it was) 22,500 miles. Of course that was in the days when GM sweated the details.

That would be the Buick-built V8, yes. A friend of mine had a V8 Skyhawk. A lot of engine for pushing around a little car. I think it might have been a 4-speed, too, although I could be wrong...

Any ideas on ways to go around changin that pulley you wanted to change (pulley #2) ?? I have to change that pulley also as the bearings are shot.. but thinkin of ways around not having to remove the power steering pump cause of that stupid steering pump pulley I'm running */Cless as that bearings is shot and the belt was starting to shred so I just cut it off not wanting to have the belt or somethin shred and cause more problems with other belts and crap..

Help.. running */Cless is painful.

Wish there was a way around it but removing the engine mount from the block seems the only way. I'm debating on how I'll tackle this issue. Fortunately (?) for me the bearing is fine, it the surface that'* the problem. Either the belt was slipping, thereby getting hot, and melted the pulley or there was a lot of debris getting between the belt and the pulley.

The first sign of trouble was when I threw a belt. The belt was in fine condition, I had it slacked off a couple of days before while I was checking the tensioner and idler pulley bearings. It seems that the bely walked across the harmonic balancer pulley by 2 grooves, this put the entire load on those grooves which were actually running on the forward edge of the HB pulley where there aren't any grooves - the belt eventually separated and got thrown.

Not realising the full extent of the trouble at that point, I decided to have my 3.5" pulley installed because I wasn't going to buy a new stock belt and then a shorter Gatorback for the eventual pulley change. Upon arriving home with the new pulley and Gatorback I looked under the hood to see the belt was running 2 grooves off and at the edge off the HB pulley. I slackened the tensioner and repositioned the belt properly, started the car and all looked fine, went for a short drive and saw the belt once again had walked.

It was at this point I came to the stark realisation that changing this pulley was nearly as much work as doing a camshaft change . That said, I had to find a short term solution. I found a peice of 3/8 diameter rod , 10" long, and then squeezed a sway bar end link bushing onto it - I was going to use this to turn the pulley while holding a file against the pulley. This actually worked out fine, I went at it carefully mindfull not to remove to much material because the pulley is plastic. After about a half hour it was pretty well staightened out.

The car fine this way for now until I devise a plan to change the pulley. I also have an oil leak from either the oil pan ar the rear main seal, and the tranny may be leaking at the torque converter seal. I also have to change my AC compressor, I alreadt have a new one waiting. With all this in mind, I'm actually considering pulley the engine and transaxle to do this work.

I'm thinking of a few more things to do while this is underway so I might lay up the car for a week a really go to town.

P.*. The power steering looks easy to do from under the car. Either up on a lift or on ramps would be good.

Cheers,

will it be easier to put the car up on ramps?? thought you would need to remove the wheel.. but I guess you can fit a socket from bottom and top to get to it huh.. well my bearings are shot and will have to prelace the pump and pulley this weekend.. thinking that since I will have the mount out.. Tamara'* dad suggest we weld 2 piece of metal to each bracket after we cut it in half.. then use 3-4 bolts to hold the 2 metal together so that way it won't be such a PITA to remove the bracket/mount next time to change something that requires the mount out. or the steering pump out..

naw man, don't blame pontiac.. it'* not their fault. Blame Buick. They're the ones who designed all of the 3800'*.

But my GTP didn't have such a pain in the a$$ mount :P

Cheers,