should all 4 pulley's turn freely? because the 3 little pulley's turn free but the one at the bottom( i believe it the crank pulley) does not turn when i try and turn it with my hand. its the one at the bottom and has 2 pulley's on it....both belts fit there....

 

What is the problem with the car ? It will be hard to turn the crank pulley with your bare hands if it's on compression stroke.

 

the belts come off the pulley's (both belts) and i was told most likely one of the pulley's froze up! but i can turn all the other pulley's by hand, just not the big pulley at the very bottom of the engine so i am guessing thats the drive/chaft pulley! i was thinking that the chaft pulley if the one that acutally makes the belt rotate and the car wouild have to be running in order for that to turn but i really dont know....i was just using common sense on that thought!

 

Yeah, the lowest pulley is the engine's crankshaft. That one drives all the others. When you turn that, you are turning all the internals of the engine, so it'll be difficult to turn it by hand.

Only turn it forwards. That is, counterclockwise for a '98 4-cyl engine, clockwise for a V-6.

Now under what circumstances do the belts come off? The pulley on the AC compressor will freewheel easily. But if the AC compressor is seized, that one will quit turning when the AC is switched on.

 

If your crank shaft pulley locked up then you have a very serious problem, car won't even crank or turn over.

 

I think Northwick's confusion is that he isn't familiar with just how much force it takes to turn the crankshaft by grabbing the crank pulley by hand. It's not gonna spin easily like the alternator or other pulleys.

 

yeah jimblake thats what i was wondering! i was just making sure that i only had a slight problem on my hands and nothing really big (hopefully). yeah i figured u couldnt turn the crank pulley by hand i figured thats what acutally made the belts start turning.....and piggylover its not locked up.....my car still turns over and all that

jimblake.....i was driving and the belts just fell off...but the belts were old and worn and i knew they needed changed!

 

So get new belts (gee I figured that one out all by myself...)

When you install them, look real carefully for all the pulleys to be lined up parallel to each other. Check each pulley - they should not wobble at all, just spin straight.

I don't think any of the accessory brackets are flimsy, but look for anything bent which will make the pulleys NOT line up perfectly.

It's possible that one belt just fell apart (old-age). As it was coming apart there's all this stringy crap flailing around - that would have caused the other belt to de-rail.

 

well duh! i know i need new belts. i just wanted to make sure thats all i needed before i put the new ones on there and screwed those up too...i am about to get a new car and dont want to spend to much money on this accord!

 

The crank pulley will be hard to turn, because you will be fighting the engine compression.