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Car Forum / Ford / Ford Cars / January 200597 Taurus 3.0 Vulcan Serpentine Belt Replacement Nightmare
My 97 Taurus 3.0 Vulcan's serpentine belt decided to start giving up the ghost, which I noted on an early Christmas Eve look under the hood prior to a trip to NY for Christmas. For some reason (its only a year old replacement belt) the back (smooth) side of the belt is starting to delaminate. Apparently for at least a while, a chunk of it must have been flying around with the belt, as a big chunk of the hood padding above the belt area is all worn away. Its still working, but obviously need replacing. I have no idea, other than that the belt was defective, why this is happening. No abnormal pulley noises or other indications of excessive friction or belt misalignment. Ended up taking another car to NY to be on the safe side. I picked up a Goodyear Gatorback belt at Autozone and figured that it would be an easy replacement job. But Nooooo.....Ford's sadistic little designers left no room between the engine and the fender frame to get a socket with good sized bar handle on the tensioner pulley nut to muscle it enough to slack the belt. I can get a small 15 mm open end wrench on, but can't make the tensioner budge with it. Not long enough for a good mechanical advantage, and it seems I should be applying the wrench from below the engine vs. above to get the right direction of force applied. Anyone else wake up from this nightmare with a successful outcome, short of surrendering and letting a repair shop deal with it? If you have the right tool this job is not very difficult. I had done this few times. I bought a special serpentine belt changing wench from Sears. It is suitable for cars from many manufactures. It is basically a flat bar with various sizes of socket heads. It has the correct socket for your Ford Vulcan engine. This tool costs about $15.00 It is well worth the cost. Good luck. Steve > My 97 Taurus 3.0 Vulcan's serpentine belt decided to start giving up the > ghost, which I noted on an early Christmas Eve look under the hood prior to [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > Anyone else wake up from this nightmare with a successful outcome, short of > surrendering and letting a repair shop deal with it? In news:alt.autos.ford, chiuss@nswccd.navy.mil posted on 27 Dec 2004 06:57:02 -0800: > If you have the right tool this job is not very difficult. I had done > this few times. I bought a special serpentine belt changing wench from > Sears. It is suitable for cars from many manufactures. It is > basically a flat bar with various sizes of socket heads. It has the > correct socket for your Ford Vulcan engine. This tool costs about > $15.00 It is well worth the cost. Good luck. I have a similar tool from Advance Auto. But even with that tool and a socket, you have to kind of angle the socket onto the tensioner bolt and twist it into place. Fortunately motor mounts have some rubber in them. The engined nudged just a tad which was the only reason I could get the bar in there. Damaeus > My 97 Taurus 3.0 Vulcan's serpentine belt decided to start giving up the > ghost, which I noted on an early Christmas Eve look under the hood prior [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > of > surrendering and letting a repair shop deal with it? You might need the pulley and bearing that go on the tensioner. The bearings get worn and need replacing. > > My 97 Taurus 3.0 Vulcan's serpentine belt decided to start giving up the > > ghost, which I noted on an early Christmas Eve look under the hood prior [quoted text clipped - 28 lines] > You might need the pulley and bearing that go on the tensioner. > The bearings get worn and need replacing. I had the intermediate idler go on my 93. At first i thought it was water pump noise (steady metallic whine that varied with RPM). It shelled the bearing and drove the mount bolt though the window washer tank. Just a word on belt replacement: make sure there is no crud in the serrated pulley valleys before you put the new one one. And check the idler and tensioner for noise and make sure there tight and not wobbling. Also, sometimes the water pump will wear its sleeve bearing and drag the impeller on the housing. When this happens, it does slightly cock the water pump pulley angle. Look for weeping around the water pump. Bob > My 97 Taurus 3.0 Vulcan's serpentine belt decided to start giving up the > ghost, which I noted on an early Christmas Eve look under the hood prior to [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > Anyone else wake up from this nightmare with a successful outcome, short of > surrendering and letting a repair shop deal with it? This is an easy job. Use a good 15mm combination wrench(box end on the bolt), use it from above, and start back toward the firewall some (I know - it just looks wrong) and swing the tensioner all the way to slip the belt off the alternator.. You will have the strength, it just looks like you won't. It will seem the bolt would break, but it doesn't. If the tensioner IS siezed(then this is part of your problem) you won't be able to swing it. If so, cut the belt, replace the tensioner (about $60.00 & just one bolt & 15 minutes) and put on the new belt. The most time consuming part of the whole thing is to fish the new, stiff belt around each pulley. Rob Chris: Try this link: http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&vertical=TOOL&pid=0 0941831000 It is for a serpentine belt tool at Sears. I have run into your situation on a number of vehicles; I'm afraid it's just a by-product of stuffing all that pollution/accessories in the engine compartment. I use this tool any time I change belts. My suggestion [if this price is a little steep for your wallet] - try e-Bay for a better price?? Hope this helps Unca' Bob > My 97 Taurus 3.0 Vulcan's serpentine belt decided to start giving up the > ghost, which I noted on an early Christmas Eve look under the hood prior [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > of > surrendering and letting a repair shop deal with it? Thanks for the info all. Considering the foot of snow we just got last night, I let a local Midas shop do the deed for me this time. I hate working on cars in the cold and snow. (Bad time to try to get it into my garage - its gridlocked with my wife's camelias in winter storage and my son's college apartment stuff as he just graduated in mid December). I will definitely get one of those Sears tensioner tools for the next time, on this or any other car. It looks like the old belt was delaminating from a slight misalignment on the alternator pulley. As the overhanging section of the belt contacted the lip on the outer side of the pulley, the resultant flexing was causing small segments of the flat side's outermost lamination to wear off in small chunks. From the wear pattern, it probably would have completely corrected itself eventually after shedding all of the topmost lamination. Otherwise, the belt looked fine. No indications of abnormal pulley friction or wear. >My 97 Taurus 3.0 Vulcan's serpentine belt decided to start giving up the >ghost, which I noted on an early Christmas Eve look under the hood prior to [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > > To gain a mechnical advantage I use "the CLUB." I take the bar section out and place the open end of the red section to the wrench. Then pull to the front to release tension. The other problem I 'm having though is that "Autozone" at first gave me a belt to short ( non AC). And today the one they gave me seems to long? "Keystone" or "Kelly" brand I think? Today I'll go back to Pep Boys or Straus. Their belts all ways fit right on my 96. Your right, about the clearance issue. The longest job I ever did was trying to replace the water pump, in the car. It's not fun................ :-( I've had no problem doing the belts at all. In fact I thought it was a breeze. I used a 15mm wrench and a 3/4 as a cheater bar. GOD BLESS THE USA Member of IPCO- International Pest Control Operators Public message board- http://www.ipconetwork.org/fmb/cboard.mv Put on your 15mm wrench, BOX END, and slip a pipe or something over the other end to give you the leverage. > My 97 Taurus 3.0 Vulcan's serpentine belt decided to start giving up the > ghost, which I noted on an early Christmas Eve look under the hood prior to [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > Anyone else wake up from this nightmare with a successful outcome, short of > surrendering and letting a repair shop deal with it? |
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