So, with all the rain in the area over the last week or two, I think driving through washouts (extremely dangerous, do not attempt. I had other cars go through first to make sure my fam would be ok) had caused damage to one or more bearing assembly on my pulley system. Have pulley bearings been known to go out in our cars? Replacing the bolt-on systems (AC, Water pump, ALT, tensioners) is not a prob. I just really dont wanna hear about the boss pulley.

Yes, down in the Casa Grande/Tucson area have been flooded and that is one thing i would never recomend doing, the water moves faster then it looks, only takes about 6" of moving water to sweep your car downstream... and the mudy water will do a number on ur bearings

Ah, so it has been known to destroy bearings! Thanks for confirming my suspicions. Now: How common is it for our crank to grind like that? (Please say nearly impossible...)

If you think about it, the mudy water is like fine sand paper, once the bearing rub in the water for alil bit they get worn down, and the greese and lube is not longer there, you have metal-on-metal contact and that will wear down very fast... not sure how common that is, but i would suggest getting under the car and cleaning up with mud and crap under it and greese/lube all the pullys and bearings you can... even WD-40 on some of the bearings can help out alil bit

K, thx, I'm gonna give it a shot today when I get home.

The crank should be sealed.
Unless you got water in the engine itself, it's likely that you've got a pulley making noise.
Check the the simple stuff before losing sleep over it....

Yeah, thx. ifitwasnt4u (Mike, isnt it?), I dont have any WD-40, so it's gonna hafta wait. How many of the pulleys ARE freewheeling? I'd hate to pull my belt just to find out I cant turn ANY of them, ya know?

yep, its Mike, and you should be able to turn all of the pulleys (except for the crank), if you use WD-40 watch were you spray it, dont get any in the ALT or anything like that, more then anything tho, that should be where your problem is coming from, alil grease and wd40 should fix that situation

Mud in the oil would be a bad combo!

So here we go: I just took the belt off and spun all pulleys. It is the A/C pulley. GM wants 178 USD for the pulley assy. Have a quote through Checkers and Advance Auto Parts, each for 85 USD. I know where I'm getting the parts. What I dont know is: How hard is this project? Would I be better off sending this off to a shop, or is it just intimadting looking? Thanks yall.

im going to be doing the same thing as you there, well im donig the entire clutch assym. i afreid of it, lol

You should be afraid, AC clutch work is not an easy task..and to be honest, your probably better off just replacing the whole ac compressor

I had this problem on a SHO and it was NOT pretty.

I'd recommend contacting ed morad at gtped@msn.com , I bet he'll get you a much better price on a salvage part. Also ask him what he knows about the install.
Replacing the compressor would suck due to price and because you'll need to pull a vacuum and recharge the system, which a shop would have to do unless you have a vacuum pump (i ghetto-rigged this once and it worked. used a pump from a refrigerator soldered to some fittings and a vacuum gauge).

I sure will, thank you. As for replacing the entire unit, that would have to be a shop thing. I am not about to play around with that high-pressure system. A friend of mine was telling me how they had rigged an AC compressor so they could over-pressure the system as part of the Auto Shop class in HS. Once they over-charged the system then turned it on, it ALMOST shattered the plexiglas. I am NOT about to play with that, THANK YOU...lol

A/C clutch in nearly impossible to change in your garage unless you have the proper tools. My A/C clutch is making noises as well so I pulled the relay out so it won't grind away and cause some serious damage to something else. Luckily I can get away without A/C for now.