Wow... Am I just losing my touch or is it a nitemare to replace the belt on a new 6.0... took me nearly an hour to do it by myself. I got tired of the ford one constantly squeaking so I stuck a gatorback on it.

 

Did you do it with the shroud in place? Do you have one alternator or dual alternators? (Since you said "belt" not "belts" I assume only the single.) Inquiring minds who will have to do this themselves someday want to know...

The belt on our '97 7.3 is a complete piece of cake. The 6.0 looks like a nightmare.

Duncan

 

Mine is a 03 single alt. I started to remove the shroud only to find.. to remove the should where it would actually make a difference you had to remove two pieces of the upper shroud, the elec. wires to the fan. the fan, the inner shroud, the lower shroud and I didnt really feel like jacking with it. I just removed the back upper piece. The peice right behind where it says power stroke. Just a few goofy clips. Then the fishing began... You only have about 1/2 inch to get the 1/2 breaker bar into the tensioner or should I say my long handle torque wrench (the square drive on the tensioner is not indexed correctly to be able to use a breaker bar. It would be stuck thru the battery, tray etc). and there is only 1/2inch or less from the crank pulley to the shroud. And it is really easy to lose track of your routing when you cant see anything on the drivers side from the top or the bottom. Maybe if I removed the intercooler tube I could of. But i was getting p!$$3D thinking how I was working on a truck that was under warranty and only had 15k miles on it. But I DID NOT want another squeaking A$$ ford belt on it.... Yea, my old 00' stroker was a breeze compared to this cobbled up mess. I can say there is basicly no point on the shadetree guy keeping a spare belt with him. Maybe for when the tech shows up he can fix it on site.. But yea... one word. REDICULUS

 

I thought I read that the shroud had to be cut in order to replace the belt. Sounds like it can be done without the cutting. Good news.