'95 F250 RCLB 4x4 5-speed 170,000-ish miles mostly stock

Ribbed idler (next to the tensioner) is not spinning freely. Only making noise when it's wet, but it's not long for this world. Trying to decide whether to swap the whole pulley or just replace the bearing. From what I've researched, looks like the bearing is a 6203-2RS, and alas, looks like most are made in China. There is a Japan-made version available (numbered 6203-2NSE) on Amazon, $8.00-ish IIRC.

Gates 38052 pulley is $22-25, depending on whether I go RockAuto or local pickup at O'Reilly. Question is, where would its bearing be made? Can't seem to find that answer online.

The smooth pulley on top is not in much better shape. AutoNation has OEM for $20-ish, but again, I wonder what bearing it uses.

I almost think it'd be better to get just the bearings, since I'll be more certain about where they come from. So are there ANY of these bearings still made in the US?

 

Deleted, misunderstood the Q

 

I have a new Motorcraft idler pulley out in my shop that I haven't installed yet and I think came from Rock Auto. Pretty sure the bearings are NTN or one of the other Japanese bearings. Not made in USA but very good bearings. I'll double check on the bearings in the morning.

If possible I buy Motorcraft even if it's a few bucks more. Rock Auto and Amazon usually have pretty competitive Motorcraft prices. I haven't seen a Made in USA new bearing in a while.

 

I checked the new and uninstalled Motorcraft idler pulley and it has NTN Japanese bearings. If it was my truck I'd either go with the Japanese individual bearings, or a complete Motorcraft pulley, wouldn't take a chance on the Gates pulley.

 

^^^ Thanks for the 411. Unfortunately Rock Auto only has the Motorcraft smooth pulley, not a grooved one. Hey, can you go see if there's a number on that NTN bearing? Maybe I'll search on that and see what turns up.

Edit - disregard my request. Looks like a 6203LLB. Shoot, they cost almost as much as the whole pulley.

 

Madpogue, I think...THINK that Fastenal bearings are USA or Japanese made. When I worked there, they were a darn good bearing. The city of Carlsbad used them on a few pieces of their equipment and the foreman told me they were the only bearings that would run 6000 hours plus on the heavy equipment. Maybe look on their website or go into a store if you have one near you? Hope this helps.

 

Rock auto grooved pulley, mot ys268 $26
I just did all my pulleys and belt

 

^^^ +1; found the YS286 on RA with a part number search. Their listings for '95 don't include it, but I **THINK** that's an error of omission on their part. Looks like all their listings for '95 are for 7-rib pulleys, which would only apply to the early '95s. Both our '95s are later 8-rib trucks, should be the same as '96. So I think I'll pull the trigger on both Motorcraft pulleys (ribbed and smooth, since the top one could use a refresh too). Then maybe I'll throw some cheap China bearings in the old pulleys, just to have as working spares.

 

Mad Pogue when my bearings went out on that I just went to the local machine shop. They measured and pressed in new us made bearings and I was out the door for under 20 bucks.

 

replace it all.
Unless the wheel is in mint condition.
Just a little bit of wear on that stuff can reduce the life span of a belt.

 

Motorcraft YS268 and YS269 idlers arrived from RockAuto yesterday. These ones have bearings marked NTN Canada. Nice thing is, they came with new bolts. Def. happy with the quality.

I almost trashed the ribbed one. Didn't notice that the old one had a spacer behind it, held in place by a rubber o-ring on the threads of the bolt. So the new one was pressing against the tensioner body when I torqued it down. Stoopid impatient me didn't notice it, lit up, and it started to grind on the tensioner body! Caught it before it really did anything, though.

Bearing in the old smooth idler is not bad, so I'm just going to put it in my spares bin. Old bearing in the grooved pulley was REALLY shot. I found a Nachi Quest Japan-made bearing on eBay for $4.50-ish; may as well throw one in and throw it in the spares bin as well.

I ended up replacing the belt as well. Old one (Gates green-back HD) was not all that old, but I think I gooked it up working on it, because it was making noise. Maybe I'll try cleaning it up one day and see how it does.

 

Good news that our friends in Canada can still make ball bearings even if we can't.

I'm not sure why Ford uses those Torx bolts on the tensioners. I have a small collection of partly twisted #50 Torx head wrenches. Maybe they have a clearance or other reason for not using a conventional hex head. That serpentine drive system sure has a lot of bearings in it. I replaced the water pump, alternator and all of the pulleys, only to have the AC pump seize up. The rear bearing on the alternator was completely shot and the ***** were missing. Somehow the darn thing was still charging.

 

^^^^ I've twisted torx sockets including T50s on a few things. But I reckon in those cases, if it were a regular hex head, I would have cracked a conventional socket. You can get impact torx sockets. Going into this job, that was the thing I thought would snag me, the bolts being in there for 20 years. But just a conventional breaker bar got 'em loose in just seconds.

 

I got my bearings at Napa in November and it was under 10 bucks in the middle of nowhere in Oregon if I remember they were 6203 bearings