Belt Guide/Fan Pulley do not turn freely

[amlaporte]

Having a bit of a problem...I thought the timing belt had broken on our 94 4Runner, but after taking it apart found the belt to be in perfect order...crank/camshaft pulleys also in great condition.

In turning the pulleys found out that the reason that 2 of the belts broke was because the belt guide/fan pulley do not turn freely.

I can turn it slightly, after using a wrench wedged between 2 of the bolts but only for a few turns and then it binds up again.

Is there any way to remove that part (now that the pulleys are off it is just a shaft with 4 bolts)? I would like to clean out the "casing" that the shaft goes into and then see if there is a way to grease it so it doesn't bind up anymore.

Thanks for your help! (It's all apart in the garage as we speak).

Turns out it's the Fan Bracket or Engine Cooling Fan Bracket Kit or one of the other hudreds of names it's called. Now that it's off, I'm off to search the parts stores, although calling them has brought no luck, since they her a female voice and go, "You sure that's what you want?" LOL.

 

[94Runnin]

I don't have an answer to your question but I did have a similar problem recently. I had been hearing a noise which I thought was the water pump about to go but the fan eventually locked up. Since I don't do my own repairs and there is no dealer in my town I had it hauled in to an independent garage. They found that when it locked up it somehow sheared the water pump shaft. They were unable to find after market parts and had to get a fan assembly from the dealer. The whole deal ran about $1500. Maybe you have caught yours in time to avoid this.