Idler Pulley Fell Off!!

[Nataliator]

Hi guys,

97 ex sport 4.0 sohc - driving home from work yesterday and all of a sudden a few blocks from my house i get that burning belt smell. As I attempt to pull into a parking lot, i notice my power steering is out!

Long story short, popped the hood, found the belt to be completely off all its pulleys, and a conspicuous gap where i thought an idler pulley should be. Sure enough, Looked at my bro's mustang and there is a pulley i am missing! Bolt and everything! It must have locked up while driving, and the belt spun it off the block and it went flying.

So my quick question is does the idler pulley have ridges on it or is it smooth? does the belt's inside or outside run on this pulley? I read conflicting info on here, and want to make sure. Unfortunately, I do not have the routing for the serp. belt either (someone/mother nature? peeled the diagram/sticker off from under the hood!)... So if anyone has a photo of that...any help would be great! I just want to make sure when i go get a new one that its the correct pulley because a member here mentioned they got the wrong one from 2 different auto stores!

Thanks!

 

[Drew11]

I had this same problem with the 1996 5.0. The idler seized and broke the belt, luckily I was in the middle of nowhere when it happened. The replacement pulley was smooth, even though my original had ridges and a little bit of a lip on it. And on mine the outside of the belt runs on it. The parts store should be able to print you out a diagram of your serpentine.

 

[arco777]

Should be the same as a first gen OHV... idler pulley can have alignment ridges stock but an aftermarket replacement is usually smooth. No big deal. Smooth side of belt runs against the idler. A new pulley will run you about $10, the bolt you will have best luck finding at a scrapyard or perhaps the Ford dealer.

 

[96eb96]

If you read this thread you should change yours ASAP! They are prone to fail. Don't forget the one on the tensioner as well.

 

[BrianDye]

I would just spend the extra little bit and go through Ford, or somewhere to get a brand new bolt, I would feel alot safer LOL, who knows how rotted/brottle the 13+ year old bolts from the JY are

 

[gmanpaint]

Dealer for the bolt. I did it, and that's my vote!...lol

 

[Heath]

Happened to mine too... Same thing, on my old 96 5.0... Maybe I should think about replacing the one on my 01 before Moab...

 

[2000StreetRod]

Photo of serpentine belt routing

The following photos are from my 2000 Sport:

Serpentine belt routing

Idler pulley

Tensioner

 

[Nataliator]

thanks so much for the help! And thanks for the tip on the bolt haha I hadn't even considered that part yet but yes I will need one of those, too! Is it just a bolt that goes there or is there a lock washer/bushing/anything else I should know about? This would be much easier if the dang thing didn't fall off.

Should be the same as a first gen OHV... idler pulley can have alignment ridges stock but an aftermarket replacement is usually smooth. No big deal. Smooth side of belt runs against the idler. A new pulley will run you about $10, the bolt you will have best luck finding at a scrapyard or perhaps the Ford dealer.

I find it odd that its possible the stocker was ridged even though the belt runs on the smooth side, wouldn't that result in belt wear?

Either way, thanks again guys!

 

[vroomzoomboom]

it must be something in the air!

this happened last week, and would have made one hell of a mess if i was standing on it (bye bye rad hoses, power steering lines, trains lines FLAMES!)! i have never seen this happen to a pulley ever.

 

[96eb96]

it must be something in pizza air!

this happened last week, and would have made one hell of a mess if i was standing on it (bye bye rad hoses, power steering lines, trains lines FLAMES!)! i have never seen this happen to a pulley ever.

This should be a sticky for the second gen exes. Seriously, people can get stranded at 3am in the middle of nowhere. As they get up in age most will fail.

 

[Nataliator]

This should be a sticky for pizza second gen exes. Seriously, people can get stranded at 3am in pizza middle of nowhere. As pizzay get up in age most will fail.

Mmmmmm...pizza....

 

[Nataliator]

I want to update everyone. I bought the idler pulley aftermarket (wanted to save some coin) and of course, Ford has no longer made the bolt that goes through the idler pulley available. HOWEVER, if you buy the pulleys from Ford, they include a bolt. Makes perfect sense right?

In any event, for anyone who is going to replace the pulley and wishes to replace the bolts as well, depending on the age of your truck, you may be better off just buying everything from the stealership to save some hassle of having to go to home depot or something and trying to match up the bolt.

FYI the pulley cost me 20 bucks from autozone, and the pulley and bolt assembly from Ford cost me $41. Thanks to everyone for their help with this.

 

[screaming01l]

well, i googled this and ended up here, so hello. I have a 97 4.0 SOHC and the idler pulley pretty much blew apart today leaving just the center section of it, Looks like the inner bearing ring and a few other pieces, Anyways, what id like to know is, My friends and i rebuild lightnings (f-150's) so i have a ton of idler pulleys, new from 5.4's 2v and 4v. Are they the same diameter? 70 or 80MM i think.

 

[robcarstuff]

+1 for Something in the Air

Hi there; occasional lurker, first-time poster here.

Was looking for torque specs for my new idler pulley when I ran across this thread. Yes, there's definitely something in the air; mine just failed catastrophically last Saturday evening (catastrophically from the pulley's POV; no other damage was apparent). I'd post a picture of my failed pulley, but the bearings seized on the way home; at that moment, the formerly occasional squealing turned into the death SQUEEEEEEEAL of a seized bearing, followed by a KERCHANG and then the nice DING DING DING of the pulley bouncing down the road under my Ranger.

Must be the unusually nice spring we've been having in MA (assuming you conveniently forget the monsoons between all the nice days). My hunch is that the pulley was feeling frisky, and decided to jump for its freedom.

Anyway, thanks for the great information in this thread. Was only going to replace the pulley, but having read the comments here, I'm going to replace all three items. I already had the idler, the tensioner, and a new belt sitting on the passenger seat at the time of failure, so that's easy enough.

Cheers,

-Rob

 

[Geminiangel]

Tensioner fell off

Hello Everyone...

I own a 1997 Ford Exlporer XLT and my tensioner fell off today. I really want to thank you for these posts because they helped me identify exactly what it was that fell off. I can see and understand the pully system diagram (my sticker is still attached) but I don't understand where the spring goes that fell off. Would anyone have any advise, logic, or directions?

Hope everyone has a great day and thank you so much in advance.

 

[gmanpaint]

Welcome to the forum. There is alot of useful info here that will help you with your '97.

If the tensioner came off, causing the spring to come off, chances are it is no good. It most likely needs replaced with new. Better safe than sorry.

 

[chedderslam]

Can anyone tell me if there is a washer or other type of spacer that goes between the pulley and mount point?

 

[94Explorertech]

Idler pully

There is a beveled washer on the front behind the bolt and on the backside there is a tight fitting star lock washer sitting against the bearing. was lucky enough for mine to try and pull a Houdini and great escape at the same time, it all stayed together but the bearing is scrap metal, well flakes mostly =)