Hi all, I just wanted to relay my experience of changing the timing belt out on my '97 Ranger 2.3L. I was a little nervous about trying to do it myself, but after studying all the posts here by others, I decided to go ahead. My main concerns were getting the crankshaft bolt off and retracting the tensioner without the special tool from Ford. The crankshaft bolt turned out to not be a problem in my case; a 1/2 in. drive impact wrench borrowed from a friend snapped it free with no trouble. When I finally got to where I had access to the belt itself, inspection showed that it was not really that worn. The first belt broke on the highway at 122,500 and, as I was a long way from home, had it towed to the nearest Ford dealer and had them do it. Now, at about 237,500 it doesn't even seem worn? Go figure. The only thing that I could see wrong was that it seemed maybe a little loose, tension-wise. When I checked the alignment of the timing marks however, I saw that the mark for the oil pump sprocket was off by a whole tooth (sprocket was too far CCW by 1 tooth) and the mark for the camshaft sprocket was off by maybe 3/4 of a tooth (again too far CCW).

At this point I figured, well, might as well replace it and maybe I'll get better performance if I adjust the new one properly. By the way, I don't think that the belt ever slipped a tooth, I think the Ford dealer never properly aligned it on the first replacement. While I was in there I decided to replace the water pump, thermostat, and the tensioner. Can you believe that when you order a new tensioner from Ford it doesn't even come with the spring? That was annoying - I guess I was supposed to tell the parts guy that I wanted the spring too!

Now came the fun part of trying to retract the tensioner without the special tool. I might get chastised here, but what I ended up doing was to use a 3 ft. long steel bar 1/4 x 1 in., wrapped well with masking tape for a little grip and cushion and pryed the tensioner over against the oil pump sprocket. It worked, sort of, there wasn't very much engagement against the tensioner roller, due to the angle. Anyway, to try to keep this story from getting too much longer, when I got the new belt and tensioner on, I was happy that I felt the alignment was much better to the marks. Of course, the cam sprocket was now about 1/4 tooth too far CW, but I reasoned that's better than 3/4 tooth too far CCW.

When the time came to finally start it up (3 days later - I took my time over the labor day weekend), I nervously turned the key. It started immediately, but to my horror a loud staccato tapping sound emanated from the valvetrain . I resisted the temptation to shut it right off, after all, I was sure I'd done everything right.........I'll just let it idle a while and see if it quiets down. And you know, it did...after a period of maybe 15 mins. or so it had gradually quieted down to maybe a little noisier than it used to be. The sound was pretty even across the whole valve cover. Maybe the fact that it ran for about 115,000 miles with the belt off almost a whole tooth (thanks Ford) caused a wear pattern on the camshaft and lifters and it will just have to wear in again??!!. Anyways, I've now driven it about 25 miles and the power and driveability is good.....maybe a little better than before???....I'll have to wait and see if the MPG's are better or worse.

Just wanted to post this for other people's benefit.......comments appreciated. Thanks!