Haven't ever done this, did one on a 97 F-350. How hard is it on my 04 with AC? Going to get it from Geno's. Any tips are appreciated.

 

Just did my 6.7 a couple of weeks ago and I believe they are similar. Locate the belt diagram under the hood and study it well. With the electric fan clutch, the belt does NOT go over the fan. On mine, it helped to remove the bottom fan shroud mount, to make some room to get in there. The tensioner has a 3/8" square hole for a breaker bar, and a short cheater bar helps too. Hope this helps.

 

My 2007 5.9 did not have the belt diagram under the hood.

Thank goodness I had internet available when we were changing the belt in a parking lot after the idler pulley failed.

 

My 04.5 has a 1/2" drive. I just replaced the water pump last week.

 

I cut my old one off with a knife and it took a couple of tries, putting the new one back on, til I got it right cuz it won't go over the fan. I used a cheater pipe on my ratchet to tension the idler and tied the cheater with a piece of rope to keep it tensioned. I put the belt over the alternator last and then untied the rope. Make sure you have the grooves lined up right on all the pulleys. Craig

 

I replaced mine on my 04 a few months ago. I found that the best way to do it is to replace the tensioner and idler pulleys at the same time, which are wear parts anyway, and forget about all the wrangling around and knuckle busting that many have reported on over the years. Doing it this way only took me about 20 minutes. YMMV.

 

Didn't remove a single thing on mine. Took the tension off the tensioner slipped the belt of the alternator, release the tension on the tensioner and remove the belt. Put the new one on using the same method just in reverse order.

1/2" breaker bar is all that is needed for the tensioner.

Arrow is where the breaker bar goes.


Belt diagram.

 

No need to remove anything except the old belt. Use a long 1/2 ratchet instead of a breaker bar so that you can position the handle easier.

The key is how you start to feed the belt in. I found it easier to feed it over the tensioner first, towards the center of the engine. Do the A/C last so that with one hand you push the ratchet and the other hand you place the belt over the pulley. Double check that the belt is positioned properly in all the pulley grooves.

 

The other thing that works well-and makes the job really easy- is just taking the tensioner completely off the block. It's only one bolt that holds it to the block. You can't mess up putting it back on either, because it has a dowel to position it correctly.

On a similar note, does anyone know if there's a recommended replacement interval for the tensioners? Like 100K miles? 150K miles? I know on some vehicles they tell you to replace the tensioners every 100K miles.

 

I just loosened the bolt that holds the tensioner. Enough to get the belt behind it easier.

I changed mine at 80k even though it showed no real wear. Keep it in the truck as a spare for the dreaded road side emergency.

 

"I changed mine at 80k even though it showed no real wear. Keep it in the truck as a spare for the dreaded road side emergency."

Amen to that. Mine's in the toolbox in the bed-just in case...

 

I did one as part of a Jake install. I was able to stick a block along side the ratchet handle to hold the tensioner. I think I did the alternator pulley first/last.

As far as the tensioner goes I don't think there is a scheduled replacement but if I was much over 100k I'd change it out just as a preventative.

 

With 217k on your truck and you don't know when or recall when you last changed the tensioner, I too would recommend changing it.

 

I've changed the belt on a 98 12v and my old 2002 24v...judging by the diagram it doesn't look to different from those. Just a good breaker bar with a little cheater pipe to help if needed and it'll come right off and go right back on. If you can get someone to hold the bar in place while you slip the belt on it's a help.

 

this is how i did it

and studying the above diagram for a good 15 mins before making an attempt at it... it took about 45 mins for me to do it, and the last one i slid in was the ac pulley as well... its not fun, but its doable...