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tensor arm pulley

K

klfdl

New CEG'er
Joined
Jun 3, 2005
Messages
13
Location
Ontario
Has anybody ever had to replace the tensor arm pulley. Trying to figure out how to get at that tork bolt on the tensor arm.
First I can't get my hands in there, second, the bolt is so soft I am afraid of stripping it. And it's not deep enough, so you can't even get the bit in there half decent to get a good grip in to even try and turn it. And there's barely enough room for the bit and the ratchet.

Has anybody ever been able to do this successfully?
And if I do strip the bolt, do you know where I can order one because I already called Ford and they said I'd have to by the entire tensor arm to get the bolt.
 
I have done this on four cylinder contour. There is not much room too.
You can buy some special wrench for serpentine belt, they are about 30$, but it is possible to do that with a regular wrench too, it is not so tight.
About the bolt: I am not sure if it is a metric or American standard (inch) bolt (as I know there are lot of metric bolts on this car), what ever it is, here in Canada I can buy almost any kind of bolts from my part store and Kent store, therefore if you are in United States it should not be difficult to find one. The most important thing when to buy a bolt is after you found its standard, is its hardness grade, metric bolts have a number like 8.8 or 10.9 which refers to the bolt material hardness (higher is stronger) and inch bolts have some signs which indicate its hardness. The store you buy them from should know that.
 
I'm not familiar with the 4cyl contour but it sounds like it's different than the 6cyl. I'm not sure how a serpentine belt tool will help here.

The bolt that holds the tensioner arm to the front cover isn't a regular Hex bolt, it's Torx bolt which requires a tool like this...
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00942664000P

op,
I replaced mine when I was doing head gaskets so I just replaced it when the front cover was off the engine. I did this because I saw how tight the space was and didn't want to mess with it in there when I could do it outside the engine bay so I don't have much to offer but... you could go buy a cheap torx bit and cut it down a little so that you are able to fit the ratchet and bit into the small area.
 
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