So the battle continues, replaced Ac pump pully and serpentine belt a couple months ago cause of a squealing noise I was getting which it eneded up being the belt was loose and worn after 10 months! went to start the truck up the other day and after about 15 min went back outside and there was a loud intermintant ticking coming from the front end belt pully area. All pullys and belt are new. Upon further inspection noticed the belt is not riding straight along the pullys which I could notice best while looking at how it rides over the water pump pully when running. Everything seems tight. Thought I read somewhere that a bad tensioner could cause the belt to run not straight could my napa tensioner be bad after a year? Also if I shut the truck off and grab the power steering pully I can move it in and out about about a quarter inch is that normal? Any help appreciated I'm stumped. Thanks again Kyle

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-ArlpKp6lHE&persist_app=1&app=m.


Youtube video link above

 

The PS pump is normal for a little in and out, I don't know about a quarter of a inch though. My belt never rode right on my first PSD the mule but the dual SD tensioner mod fixed that.

 

Did I here right about the tensioner is what regulates the belt spinning straight? And a faulty one would make it move around a bit? . Also in the video is the movement of the tensioner look normal? Really getting irritated with this this just replaced almost every part on the front axle now my inner seals are pissing oil out the drivers side axle tube! Always somthing lol

 

Power steering pump is shot if you can move the pulley in and out 1/4". That is where the ticking noise is coming from.

 

^^^^ That would also explain the back-and-forth belt movement on the water pump pullEy, since the p/s pulley feeds to the w/p pulley. Odd thing is, that movement is once per traverse of the belt, not once per w/p rev or p/s rev. Who knows, maybe there's some variation in the grooved surface of the belt, and the play in the p/s pulley is "overreacting" to it, causing that fore-aft movement. Just a WAG on my part.

But separately, I do see some movement of the tensioner, which I don't think should happen. That spring may already be weak. Your tensioner looks very similar to the Gates long-arm replacement tensioner (38119?) for our trucks. We have that tensioner on both our trucks and I don't recall seeing the arm move like yours. What's the warranty on that tensioner?

 

The tensioners from napa and covered replace do it less than a year ago I'm gonna call them and get a replacement. As far as ps pump removal and install goes can I remove the whole pump and pully and a unit then pull off pully once out of truck? And does the pully need to be pressed back on prior to remount? I'm gonna replace both pump and tensioner?

 

I did the SD tensioner as my 3rd replacement was twisting crooked again.

I fretted over this but the mod to the bracket is super easy. All grinding or cutting is for clearance and could be performed with a chainsaw as precision is not needed.

One lesson...use only the motorcraft tensioner, BT-50 I believe. The AutOreilly's brand will be a single side pivot, much like the OBS set up you are replacing.

Chasing the correct new belt length was the hardest task. I first picked up the recommended length (I can get the part number if needed) and tough it was too short. I got the next length longer and it was too long as the tensioner bounced wildly at idle. Went back to the first one, took the time to wrestle it on.

 

Here is the thread that gave me courage to do my dual tensioner mod. A short read only three pages.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ne-w-pics.html

My post is post #26 and it has the part numbers listed in it.

Kevin

 

The pulley has to be removed to get the pump out of the bracket. put new pump back in, and then press the pulley back on. You get a loaner tool to remove and install the pulley at parts stores that do the loaner tools.