I was a few blocks from home and accelerating onto the highway when I heard "bang..tick.tick..tick...tick....tick.....tick" and the car fell flat on it's face. I quickly pressed the clutch and pulled to the side of the road. It only ticked those few times and the engine was still running smooth, but it rev'ed slugishly and the Battery light had came on. I was pretty sure at that point it was the blower belt, so I slowly moved the car to make sure nothing else could have made that noise. My worse fear was the trans input/output shaft or a half shaft snapped, but everything sounded fine so I went to the next exit and drove back. When I got there I opened the hood and there was the broken belt. Of course Ford service/parts had closed two hours before hand, so I took the truck to the local auto parts store to buy the belt. The belt part number didn't cross reference nor did they have the belt info in their computer. I didn't know the stock belt length so we kinda' measured the broken one at 72", but the shortest 8 rib belt they had was 80". I thought that was going to be too big, but I really didn't know how much was missing from the broken belt and was going to try it anyway. BTW, what size is the stock belt? Oh well, I got back home and started to route the belt but found that the idler pulley to the right of the crank (from the front) was broke. An inch chunk was peeled open, the sharp edge is what cut the belt. That same chunk is what made the ticking noise, it hit the crank a few times as the idler spun to a stop. That idler is also loose, I can wobble it back and forth about an inch. I took the belt back, then I was putting the belt guard back on so I didn't loose any hardware and the rod that connects it to to the snout broke off! So now I need Ford to replace not only the idler and belt, but the crank pulley (it's nicked up) and belt guard. I havn't drove it since last weekend anyway beacuse we have the new (used) truck, and I'm just glad I didn't get stranded somewhere. Ford's only a few minutes away, so I'll drive it over there on the battery first thing Monday morning. How many others have broken a factory idler? I know I've seen mention of it here before.
Mike
Mike
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