When idling or driving, my tensioner moves slightly side to side, and the pulley wheel does not spin, causing the belt to squeak (and soon break). I have already purchased a new pulley wheel, but wonder if the entire tensioner mechanism needs replaced? My engine has also overheated a coule of times, and I am hoping this is the cause, as the belt may not be gripping the cooling fan pulley as well as it should? Anybody? Do you know how to get step by step info on this procedure?

 

I would just change out the whole thing here you go.

 

Thanks- Ill check it out!

 

Not a problem bud.

 

Turned out to be the water pump- luckily realized before installation of tensioner. Think it might have been caused by faulty thermostat- changing that today. Any other suggestions? The pulley looks a little wobbly while running-but no noise. I didnt have a torque wrench to apply an even thirty pounds of foot torque. Maybe some bolts are tighter than others? faulty part? Thanks MG

 

How much play is in the tensioner because there shouldn't be much wobbling around at all. Maybe replace the tensioner and water pump. I would pick up a torque wrench for the water pump as well. I have done a water pump before on my taurus and got lucky without using a torque wrench but I used great care to make sure everything was around the same tightness and I have a decent feel for torque. I don't see how the thermostat could cause a failure in your pump but sometimes it's a good idea to just take care of the whole deal and the t-stat is cheap anyway. I would reccomend a 180 degree t-stat you will get better performance out of your engine (very slight but every little bit counts).

 

There does not seem to be any wobble at all anymore in the tensioner. It was very slight to begin with. I did pick up and install a 180 degree t stat and my first test drive was flawless- temp didnt go over 210! I am still concerned with the water pump pulley's wobble- I plan to test my "feel for torque" with an actual torque wrench today. Thanks so much for your response!

 

Not a problem bud you definitely don't wana any play in the water pump pulley. My old Taurus' water pump went out in a bad way. I could not visually inspect it very well because it was buried under the alternator and one day I was driving and I just hear something in my engine scraping. I pulled over and yanked the alt cause that's what I though I heard and since it had a lifetime warranty I didn't mind getting a new one and as soon as I went to put the new alt in I see my water pump pulley tilted waaayyyy over and took care of it (I had tunnel vision becauses I was in a hurry to get back to work and didn't bother to look very well). I never had any leaks out of it but when I did pull it I had a good 1/8th gouge in the block from the pump scraping LOL.

 

There shouldn't be any play in the water pump pulley. Double check your pulley.

 

Yeah, if there is play in your WP pulley, there is something wrong, probably with the pulley, or one or more of the bolts is loose. It doesn't sound like the pump itself would cause this.