Hello everyone,

I'm hoping that the helpful folks of the community can give me a second opinion to my own thoughts and maybe a troubleshooting trick or two to be sure.
The belt on my 4.2 v6 F150 broke last night in heavy traffic on the highway. It took me a bit to finally get off so by that time we had gotten into dangerous temperature levels and some smoking.
When I was able to get out, the belt snapped in two, and I had a coolant explosoin somewhere at the top right side of the compartment area losing about half of what was in the resevoir. I do not see any leak or crack areas, So i Must assume that it spewed out the little indentation area of the cap? Though, that seemed to be a tight fit.
From the screech and the way the belt broke I figured something else is hanging up to make that happen. I put a new belt on today. The very loud metallic screeching is there and the belt turns very slowly.
Would you surmise perhaps a seized shaft on the water pump, fan clutch, or idler?
To troubleshoot I should only need to go turn everythign by hand with little resistance correct?

EDIT: I took the belt off and as expected, no screeching when the engine is started. The poerwer steering pump area is very wet but its mostly coolant from what it appears being orange in color. Though, it appears that there maybe be a bit of old grease in the area.
I have take a video for you to take a peek at. Everything moves freely except the lower idler is a bit rough and in places has some rocking. I'm not 100% certain because i doubt myself in my memory, but I believe it will not turn in the correct direction. i'm looking up from under the truck in the video so that the lower idler is to my right, power steering pump to the left. Sadly looking at the video its as if it's backwards for some reason...Anyways, the idler will turn roughly, If looking at the enging standing in front of the truck, in a counterclockwise direction. It will not turn in a clockwise direction...
http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/i...=IMG_07921.mp4

 

replace idler pulley, all pulleys should spin freely

 

+1 on the idler, should spin easily both directions. If you have any other noises in the same area and are unable to pinpoint, take a piece of vacuum tubing or similar and hold one end up to your ear while using the other end to probe the suspect areas. Of course, an automotive stethoscope also works...

 

Yeah,
fix that pulley and go from there.