Help. Air-con compressor bolt sheared itself

[acarmody]

So my serpentine belt died a glorious death today, and when I went to fit a replacement it kept jumping the last rib off the harmonic balancer. I discovered that the compressor bolt that faces the front of the car has sheared itself in two about the middle, so will have to get the prick removed, fantastic.

The bolt is covered in some dark grey grease like stuff, any idea what this is?

Also would it be bad to just remove the compressor altogether and run the VS Ecotec non-aircon belt? My compressor hasn't worked in over a year and I probably won't replace it until next summer.

Cheers in advance.

[cander24]

Should be able to get a set of locking pliers onto the broken bolt/stud and remove it pretty easily and just fit a new one. Bypassing the AC compressor until you fix it by using a vs non-AC belt wont hurt anything, but leave the compressor in place, don't remove it otherwise you'll get condensation and other nasties in the lines.

[acarmody]

I broken piece is about 1" in the block.

[cander24]

Ah ok then, I misunderstood that. How handy are you on the tools? Shouldn't be too hard to centre punch the broken stud and bore a hole down the centre approx 4mm dia and then remove with an ezy out/screw extractor. Use plenty of penetrating lubricant to get down into the thread and you may also find it beneficial to do this when the block is warm/hot as the cast iron should expand when hot more than the steel stud.
Hope that helps.

[acarmody]

Well it was in a prick-to-reach place, I didn't have a stud extractor set so I took the lazy way, I had it towed to a mechanic (thanks RACQ) and they extracted it for me for $30 and put a new bolt it.

I purchased the non aircon belt, removed the smooth idler pulley and tried to fit the belt but the 'neck' (for lack of better word) where the idler pulley fits over is right in the path of the belt, is there any way to remove this?

[Brett_jjj]

To run the non A/C belt,you just have to also remove the lower idler pulley mounting as well as the lower idler pulley ,theres 3 bolts that hold this pulley mount to the engine..I went through all this a few months ago after my A/C compressor stuffed up,and I found both the lower idler pulley and its mounting had to be removed first before the non A/C belt will fit.

[acarmody]

Oh sweet, so the bolts just come out, mounting pulls out ansd thats it? There aren't any water or oil channels behind there?