Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Well...the rattling stopped (longwinded +pictures)

Everybody loves pictures right?
I have a 96 contour GL
2.0 4 cylinder Ztech with 87k miles on it
About 2 weeks ago i noticed a rattle, not your ordinary light rattle,more like the sound thats made when you shake up a can of spray paint. Started out kind of quiet at first but then it got louder as time went on. It started as soon as i started my car up and never stopped till i turned my car off. I took it to my mechanic but just my luck it was his day off and another guy had to look at it. He told me that he thought it was my valves. I didnt relly think it was because i wasnt noticing a loss of power or anything like that just the noise. I decided to wait 2 more days until my mechanic came back. Which would have been today. So last night im driving home from work and i hear a ping. Immediately im like "F*CK not my timing belt again. The car didnt shut off, power steering went out and i was able to make it home. I noticed that the rattling stopped as well. So this morning i go take a look thinking that my serpintine belt broke but to my suprise it was off and just down around the botton of the engine. Pulled it out and heard a metal clinging sound and saw something else fall with it. That something else turned out to be this:

I have NO idea what it is but from the looks of things the rattling sound i heard was this tapping up against the square metal thing that it was attatched to. I figured by the wear on it that you can see in these pictures it had worked its way loose and fell off.


Other side:



I pointed out the worn areas. Now my question is what the heck is this piece and is it easy to replace/put back on myself? It looks like it just takes 4 bolts to put back on.
I did some searching on advanceautoparts.com and i couldnt find anything that looked like it. Im thinking that because of the wear it wouldnt be smart to put the same piece back on. Next question is is this belt too worn to put back on after i find out what that part is? It doesnt look that bad except for the slightly frayed edges
Belt pictures:




Thanks for reading all that hopefully i gave enough detail for somebody to help me out. Im trying to figure out if its something i can do myself.

Looks like a water pump pulley from a I-4 Zetec (thanks, Brapple). Your car should overheat. Don't drive it anymore or you wil be looking at a headgasket job ($$$$$$).

Open up the hood and compare to Figure 11. Then you can confirm which pulley it is.
http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBroker?ForwardPage=/az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/1b/be/f3/0900823d801bbef3.jsp

and this.
http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBroker?ForwardPage=/az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/1b/d6/8b/0900823d801bd68b.jsp

yeah fortunatley it happened when i was coming home from my last workday of the week. Im not planning on driving again until its fixed. Kinda pissed that the dude told me it was my valves though.
*goes to check your links.
Thanks!

so im guessing i need to get a new pulley, but i dont see one for sale on the autozone or advance's site. I'll google and see what i can come up with. What about the belt, should i get a new one too?

Dammit Man!!
(we can curse on here right?)

Every search result i find ends up saying this:

1996 Ford Contour GL Water Pump Pulley
Home > 1996 > Ford Contour GL > Water Pump Pulley

Product Specs:

Year: -1997

Product Brand Core Price
Sorry, this part is currently not in stock.

That might be a dealer part, and the broken bolts will need to be removed and replaced, or the waterpump itself. You could try www.teamfordparts.com or fordparts.com. Rockauto.com or local stores have waterpumps.

Junkyard or PM Bill Jenkins.
http://www.contour.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=tranny&Number=1276541&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=31&fpart=1

Dealer only.

Crap even the dealership has em on back order and wont get any until the 20th...this sucks.
$22.40 doesnt sound like a bad price but, i gotta have a way to work sun-wed.