Pretty sure ours is broke, it doesn't tighten the belt at all. I'm going to try a slightly shorter belt (found one that is 0.4" shorter) and see if I can just put weight on it while someone else locks the nut in place but failing that, I'm wondering how bad it is to replace. I can find like zero info about doing it anywhere which makes me think it's bad...

 

It's easy really. There are 3 bolts that mount it to the engine. You may need to remove the pulley to get to all 3 bolts. There isn't a huge amount of room to work is the hard part. A ratcheting wrench might help.

 

this is called the "idler pulley" - you're not finding any info because you're searching for the wrong term

https://maxima.org/forums/4th-genera...lley-woes.html

maximum force should not be required, two people should not be required.

it's supposed to fit together like a sewing machine - if it doesn't, something is seriously wrong

 

 

Well I ended up giving in to my son's whining and taking it to a shop to have the A/C compressor replaced (that hurt $$$$). I just had them replace the idler pulley, they only charged $60 to do it. I thought about doing it myself but looking at the replacement options it was hard to tell which were just the pulley and which had the tensioner assembly included (and some of the reviews noted that even ones pictured with the bolt didn't actually include it), so I figured I'd let them figure it out with the compressor.