How to change serpentine belt on Ford Escort

[JamesBond]

Just changed belt on '97 Escort/Tracer (2.0 A/C and P/S) and wanted to share tips to avoid the frustration I experienced.

1. Buy cheapest drive-rite belt at Advance Auto.

2. Loosen 3 bolts that hold power steering hose to alternator to allow some room, loosen lugs and jack up car with factory jack.

3. Remove wheel and remove 10mm bolts that hold in splash shield. There are several bolts (and broken bolts) and a plastic tab at the rear. I took out the bolts in the wheel well and the tab, and the shield was able to be bent down below the suspension but was still attached near the front of the car. This is good enough to see the lower pulleys.

4. Use a 3/8 ratchet, breaker bar or belt tool on the 3/8 square hole on the tensioner, brace thigh against front of car and pull ratchet toward front of car. BE CAREFUL because you are on the factory jack! Pushing your leg against the front bumper will counter act the pulling force on the ratchet/tensioner and put less load on the jack.

5. While holding the ratchet forward slip the belt off of the alt. pulley. Release tensioner and remove belt.

6. Check for smooth operation of all pulleys and clean them if you want.

7. Loop new belt around lower pulleys then up around everything else except alternator pulley.

8. You will be temped to try to leave alternator for last and spend forever holding the tensioner and trying to loop the alternator and swearing in vain. DO NOT DO THIS!

9. Go back in the wheel well and un-loop the crank pulley then put belt on alternator pulley.

10. Pull tensioner forward with right hand and reach in wheel well with left hand and loop crank pulley.

11. Marvel at how much easier it was to do the crank pulley last instead of the alternator.

12. Grease or oil bolts for splash shield and P/S hose and re-install. Wheel, lugs lower jack, lugs again...

To sum up, loop belt around CRANK PULLEY LAST THROUGH WHEEL WELL. I hope this helps someone.

 

[user52165]

Just changed belt on '97 Escort/Tracer (2.0 A/C and P/S) and wanted to share tips to avoid the frustration I experienced.

1. Buy cheapest drive-rite belt at Advance Auto.

No.......Buy a Goodyear Gatorback belt and change the tensioner so you don't have to do again because of noise and squeaks.

I don't know the paticulars of his model, but this is good general recommendation from years of wrenching cars.

Tough to beat Amazon for in stock and deals.

 

[NHGUY]

Originally Posted By: user52165

Just changed belt on '97 Escort/Tracer (2.0 A/C and P/S) and wanted to share tips to avoid the frustration I experienced.

1. Buy cheapest drive-rite belt at Advance Auto.

No.......Buy a Goodyear Gatorback belt and change the tensioner so you don't have to do again because of noise and squeaks.

I don't know the paticulars of his model, but this is good general recommendation from years of wrenching cars.

Tough to beat Amazon for in stock and deals.


+1

 

[JamesBond]

I couldn't find anything but Dayco Drive-Rite or Poly-Cog belts locally. (Advance, Autozone, Pep Boys) Original tensioner had a good spring and quiet pulley. I had to do the work on a city street with minimal tools so I started with the cheapest and "easiest" fix first. Btw, I have a Gatorback belt on a Ford 4.6 that fixed some belt slip problems but for other applications I'm never sure what the 40% more money buys between the low/high priced belts.

 

[ethangsmith]

I've done quite a few of these and didn't ever jack the car up or take the wheel off. I just slipped the old belt off the alternator and removed it and fished the new belt around the other pulleys. I would remove a few of the screws from the splash shield near the compressor and reach under and work it around everything there. Lastly, I would crank the tensioner as far back as I could and slip it over the alternator pulley using a long blade flathead screwdriver. Worked like a champ and took maybe 15 to 20 minutes.