Hi guys, is this normal side to side free play on the friction wheel? I'm wondering if it's the cause of my overheating issues when I am at idle at a stoplight. Thanks!

 

I definitely recommend that you replace the friction wheel solely based on your observation that it fails to turn the water pump pulley when the engine is idling.
The friction wheel movement that you demonstrated also seems abnormal.

 

So it turns out that the friction wheel was actually broken, and the spring mechanism that’s supposed to retract the pulley cord didn’t work anymore. I only figured this out after ordering a new one and opening it and testing it out. It’s weird that practically all of the YouTube videos about the friction wheel only mentions that it needs replacement because it was starting to make a loud noise from the bearing going out. Anyway, here’s some comparison pics of the old and the new one and a video after all the work was done..

Old one on the right, has a broken spring mechanism and doesn’t retract the pulley cord. The new one on the left works as intended. I actually have to push in the cord on the old one for it to be retracted.

Here’s a side-by-side picture of the new one on the left versus the old one on the right with the pulley cord both retracted all the way in. You can see the new one on the left is overall shorter because it’s retracted more, and the old one on the right side is like maybe 5 mm longer. And you can see the rubber boot is a little more stretched out on the old one.

Here’s the side view picture of the new one again versus the old one on the right side as a little damage to the plastic housing, which probably happened when my serpentine belt dry rotted and broke apart.

Side-by-side picture of the old water pump, pulley wheel and a new one. Decided to replace it since I’m already down there.

This is after driving car around for 10 minutes last night. I have a Manic tune, so the temps are even lower than normal.

 

Fantastic! And thanks for posting the additional helpful information.