Saab 9000 aux drivebelt thrown - advice please

[Max Turbo]

Hello all

My 9000 seems to have thrown its aux belt. I was just backing up onto my drive when I heard a clunk, power steering was lost and my battery light came on. I reversed onto my drive, quickly got out and under the bonnet.

Checked the belt and it wasnt running around. It was half off some of the pulleys but wasn't hanging free or completely broken.

Closer inspection has shown that the belt is heavily damaged in at least one place. I have put the belt back onto the pulleys completely but when cranking the engine, the belt still does not turn.

I have come to the conclusion that one of the idler pulleys has seized (a fairly common problem isnt it???). Would this be a sensible conclusion to draw??

Secondly, it is pi55ing it down with rain here, I don't have the bits, or the time to fix it. My local garage is 1 mile away - is there anything I can do to make this car ok to get there without causing long term damage?? Will the car cope for one mile without a water pump running?

Many thanks!!

Max

[Prof Beard]

The idler wheels do fail - I had that on Mrs B's GM900.

I would have though the car would cope with 1 mile - why not do it a three small goes? CAVEAT - I've never had to do that so can't swear its OK!