:( Smoke has been pouring out of a pulley on the lower right front of my 94 V6 elite 3.0. A local garage says it's coming from the A/C pump, the clutch has probably seized. Apparently a new pump will be hundreds of pounds, but they can bypass the pump by fitting a shorter belt. Anyone know if this is true, and where I can get the right length belt?

I have a working pump that you can have for much,much less than that.  :y
Belt available from Vauxhall dealers - and possibly other places too.
You could possibly bypass the pump by using a shorter belt, but of course you will never have aircon again. ;)
I have sent you a personal message.It will say "you have 1 new message" at the top left of your screen.Click on that to view the message. :y

Welcome to OOF by the way. :y

Hi, thanks for the reply, I am in South London. Aircon would be good, especially as i only had it regassed three weeks ago!
But if it costs a couple of hundred labour to have another pump fitted, i think i will have to go without!

Wouldnt have thought it should cost that much, but Im sure others will know better than Im not sure if you lose the gas when you remove the pump. I suspect you will to be honest.

Hadn't thought of that! hat's another 50 quid then! ! have sent you a PM ...

And replied. :y

If the system still has gas in it find a friendly aircon specialist to vac the system and then fit new/second hand pump,return to said specialist and have the gas put back in possibly at a discounted rate as you won't have used much of his gas supply

I had a local  A/C guy..(Istead Rise )..replace a compressor for me several years ago.

If I remember correctly it took about 1 hour to remove the old one and then replace,after he replaced the gas and did a total leak check.Its a bit of a pig of a job as access is limited and the top bolt requires wil need an extra set of hands to guide the extension bar down through engine bay but a specialits will have no real problems.

Drop me a PM if you want there details as I highly recommend them as have looked after my A/C needs for around 10 years and they are local to you.

kentomega wrote on 30. Aug 2011 at 23:29:

:( Smoke has been pouring out of a pulley on the lower right front of my 94 V6 elite 3.0. A local garage says it's coming from the A/C pump, the clutch has probably seized. Apparently a new pump will be hundreds of pounds, but they can bypass the pump by fitting a shorter belt. Anyone know if this is true, and where I can get the right length belt?

Yep its true - you need an auxillary belt to suit an Omega 2 litre with A/Con - its the right length for the V6 without A/Con  :y

Thanks for all the tips, guys - I have contacted the aircon company at istead rise for a quote on fitting, and now I know which belt to go for, i'll soon have all the details I need to make a choice between bypassing or replacing! :y