had a little roadside emergency today. go to make a left turn into a shopping center, and find that 1) my steering assist is gone and 2) battery light is on. force the car in, hoping to find a cut belt (as i keep a spare in the car anyways). when i find this.......



my friend and i didn't quite understand how to unload the belt tension from the car when we were replacing the oil canister gasket, but it didn't matter, as someone previous had stripped the hex bolt pretty badly (at an angle). we only got the belt back on by holding the hex key to maximum release and forcing the belt back on. here's the background: the tensioner wheel is obviously melted off. would it possible to just replace/drill out the tensioner wheel bolt, or is it a "special" bolt that relieves tension when you actually turn the bolt? i'm trying to just have to buy a new wheel and bolt for it to ride on.

dumb@ss question--in releasing the tension on the shock-type belt tensioner, is the bolt supposed to spin enough to make it easy to put the belt on? if it is, then i guess i need a new mounting bracket, bolt, and tensioner wheel.

car is a 7/91 US m50 non-vanos 525i. thanks.