nathansmith50

Also...those painted valve covers look AWESOME. I am now really lamenting my laziness in cleaning and painting mine when I did my headswap.

tangystang

thanks man. and I finally got to drive my car last night after about a week of it being broke down in the yard. but the idler pulley seems to be holding up even under hard acceleration. but thanks man, yeah i had to replace the timing cover gasket and figured i would paint them while they were off. looks a million times better under there.

robbie shirkowski

If I bypass the idler pulley do I have to hang the tension pulley. Will the grooves in the pulley line up the the new route the belt takes?

WhiteFoxGT

what

how about go try it and let us know

if you want to try and bypass the pulley like in the original post....a shorter belt might get you home, but it will squeak and slip on higher RPMs

Camster

No reason that remaining pulleys would not be in alignment.That said,Ford didn't put in parts that were not required.Without the tension pulley,how do you propose to install a belt AND have it properly tensioned? There is no adjustability for the alt,water pump,etc.

jonathan2000gt

i had the same exact issue looks identical can u please tell me if u used washer, how its looking possible length of the bolt pleaseee i finally got my engine swap done and really dont wanna have to do a timing cover, hows it lasting?

JoeyM

Mine broke up the same way doing the same thing but the belt still fits on it even without the idler and I've run it for over a month and so far I have seen no difference in results but I but I could be wrong

JoeyM

Just like Mine broke off I tried JBL welding to put it back on and at 1st it worked for a while until it ripped through my serpentine belt had to get another one and then pulley lbroke off again and I tried to do a torque do a torture lock on it but ended up messing up the new surfing belt too so I just have it off because it is a pain in the neck too replace the timing cover.

JoeyM

Yeah I ended up buying 2 new belts from trying to put the bolt Back on Quit JBL Weld and Thread locker but somehow it kept going through the Serpentine belts so I have it off and no the tensioner does not touch anything else runs great I've been running it like that since then

WhiteFoxGT

Who needs idlers or tensioners anyway that stuff is for the birds