BAN WS6

I've been having a grinding noise coming from my engine bay and finally identified the source. It was the pulley on the alternator housing, some bearings had literally been ground up and chunks of them were floating around in there. What I need to know now is if the pulley has a specific name or not. I have an 01 WS6, LS1. Any help would be appreciated.

JimMueller

iTrader: (9)

Drive belt idler pulley. Try GM P/N 12564401 (98-99 models) or 12563326 (00-02 models).

99nbmws6

iTrader: (3)

i dont know if that is the right part that he is saying but i found it easier to just replace the alternator. i had the same problem.

BAN WS6

Thanks Jim, you were right on with the part number, couldn't have asked for better help.

The alternator itself is not the problem, I already mistakenly replaced that. I was stupid and didn't take the belt off and turn it on to make sure that killed the noise. Instead I just put a screwdriver on the alternator and heard the noise traveling through it. Normally that would've worked but since the bracket for the alternator has that pulley on it, I should've checked that too.

CavPat

So that idler pulley fixed your problem?

BAN WS6

Yeah, that fixed it. I knew already that it wasn't the alternator since I just replaced it and the noise was still there. I pulled the pulley off and there were nearly half the bearings missing from it, apparently they had been ground up and were working on the others. Frankly, I'm surprised it hadn't siezed up yet.