I'm new to ford, this is my first ford vehicle and I have no experience with any ford maintence. I got a new serpentine belt, but I have no idea how to get it off, and back on. I don't really know how the tensioner pulley works. Any tips or suggestions on how to loosen the tensioner pulley would be helpful.

 

look on the front of the engine there will be a rounded/triangular piece with a pulley on it.thats the tensioner.take a breaker bar or a long ratchet and fit it into the squared hole on the front of it.then swing it one way or the other to release tension on the belt then remove the belt.sometimes you have to put some *** into it.i hope this helps i have no pictures to post.

 

I just did mine this morning. Make sure you turn the breaker bar clockwise (if you are facing the engine)

I cracked my old tensioner because I did it CCW.

 

I found the square hole on the tensioner, i didn't see it when I was looking at it this morning, I was looking at where the tensioner is attached to the block, not at the pulley where the square hole actually is. Got it all fixed up now.

 

For anyne who cares, you use a 3/8ths drive breaker bar or ratchet on the tensioner

 

I do mine with my hand its faster than getting tools out.

 

I used a 1/2 drive breaker bar on it and it fit perfectly. I suppose a 3/8 drive will work in there, a little loose, but still should turn it.

 

Remind me to never screw with you! I tried that on a 4.9 ford e-250 years ago, got my hand caught and had to wait a couple hours before someone showed up to give me a hand. My left hand looked like a torn up and dieing rose with thorns sticking out.

 

With my little 4.2l I can do it with my hand too. Heck, I changed my serpentine belt on my squeezed up 4.7l v8 Dakota using my hand while slipping the belt on. It's actually only putting about 70 or so ft/lbs on it... it ain't much at least to me.