Not so lucky

We were not so lucky of it just being the belt on the dryer. After we got the front off the dryer and started to put the belt on we quicly figured out something else was wrong. Ray was holding up everything and I was down on the floor trying to thread the belt through the pulley system. According to the diagram on the instructions that came with the belt there should have been the motor pulley and the idler pulley for it to go around. The motor pulley was there but that was it. After several minutes of both of us looking I located a badly melted wheel lying near the front of the dryer. We concluded that was the idler pulley.

While I piled the wet laundry in a basket Ray calls his best friend (spoke to his wife) to see if I could come over (across the street) and dry our clothes there. They of course agreed. So inbetween hauling two wet loads of clothes over and dry clothes back for the next 2 hours I began looking up parts on the internet. Finally found what I was looking for and if it really is only that part then it will only cost us $20 (including shipping) to fix it. But now the question is will we actually be able to fix it ourselves, is it really only the pulley, or will it become something very expensive?

We replaced our washer several months ago and wanted to get the dryer to go along with it but decided not to since funds were a little low. I would love an excuse to buy the new dryer, but I would love the excuse in a year. However, Sears is now currently having a 20% off sale on Kenmores (which is what our washer is) and that may be too good to pass up.