So yesterday after eating crabs in Ocean City, I noticed that something was not right in the engine. Opened up the hood and found the SC belt had slipped off one groove and so I moved it over and tried it again and it slipped off the tensioner pulley and shredded seriously. I noticed that the idler pulley (number 8 on the engine picture under FAQS) only had the bearing attached to the engine. The grooved part was nowhere to be found. I removed the SC belt and drove home...slowly.

Anyway, this is the second time a pulley has come off and left just a bearing. This first being the smooth idler pulley.

Is this happening to any of you guys? I mean it's easy to fix, not too expensive but I dont want to replace another belt and pulley unless I'm going down to 3.0".

Also, is it ok to use a stock SC belt for my 3.4" pulley?

I've had the idler pulley disintegrate. The bearings burned up and froze. The plastic then melted and the pulley portion fell off. The idler pulley on the SC belt was getting noisey as well so I replaced it. Got both for under $40 at pep boys.

Yes stock belt for 3.4 is fine.

By the way both smooth pulleys on the S/C and accessory are the same size. So in a pinch if the accessory pulley(one that runs wp, alt etc fails while on the road you can pull the S/C belt off and use the pulley from that to get you home/repair.

Last time I stabbed the throttle on mine I got an annoying buzzing which I think was my idler pulley. I've noticed it doing this if you lean into the throttle with the a/c on.

Cool I feel better. Thanks guys.