V Belt Pulley Bearing

[Spel1]

Wondering if anyone knows where I might source a bearing for a v belt idler/tensioner pulley? (looks like the bearings in the AC and Water pump idlers are the same).
91 RRC, getting to the last of the V belts, but is common to an 88 from which I took one to replace this.

The attached pic is the bearing - there was a very old post I found that referred to maybe this bearing, but no numbers - there are also no numbers on this one.

I took it down to my local bearing shop here in Geelong, who have some very obscure stuff, they had not seen one and have no listing for similar.

It may be necessary to purchase the whole tensioner, but they are a bit (actually hideously) pricey locally - the reason I took this one apart is because the arm had snapped where it is pinched onto the spigot.

Thanks.

[1950landy]

You may find they are made under licence for Land Rover. Some of the bearings for Rover SD1's were made for them under licence & the bearing company who made them were not allowed to sell them. It was so you had to buy the complete unit from Rover & not repair the part. I can remember looking at one of these bearings for a guy in the Rover club trying to work out how we could modify the part to take a different bearing. He ended up just buying the new part .

[Bradtot]

Hey is this from a solid metal pulley?...if so take it to machine shop and get the centre machined to fit a standard bearing that is held in with a circlip .I had one done around 20 years ago in Perth and it’s still going!🙂🙂

[Rick1970]

When I had my rrc, l bought a correct size idler pulley from beating shop, and made a stub off correct size to weld into the original idler arm. It had a common bearing in it if ever needed replacing.

[Spel1]

When I had my rrc, l bought a correct size idler pulley from beating shop, and made a stub off correct size to weld into the original idler arm. It had a common bearing in it if ever needed replacing.


I like this idea, thanks. Will give it a go.
I'll have to check the quality of the idler arm I use, the reason I discovered this whole problem in the first place is where the pinch bolt grips the stationary post it had cracked through and couldn't hold tension - the metal used is very porous, or it may have been a bad casting. Or I might just make a whole arm out of fresh metal - either way this feels like a winner solution.