I need to raise the engine about 3 inches. My idler pulley is chirping like an angry bird, and the bolt which holds in the pulley won't come out until the engine is raised.

Is there anything I need to know before jacking up the engine in my escort? I am going to disconnect the motor mount bolt near the front of the engine (pass side, near alternator) and jack it up. Should I know anything before doing this?

I hate to ruin something because it should have been unplugged, disconnected, taken out of the way, etc. before starting to lift the motor.

Many THANKS!!

nope. If the timing belt has ever been replaced the engine had to be jacked and lowered in order to get it done. Place a block of wood between the jack and the oil pan. Raise the jack until the motor just starts to move then remove the motor mount. Once the mount is out you can raise the engine quite a ways. Just go slow and pay attention to whats going on and you'll be fine.

I replaced that pulley on my car. I don't remember exactly how I did it but I know I didn't jack the engine up. I'll take a look at my engine later and see if I can remember.:2cents:

I went out and looked at my car ('93 1.9L). When I replaced the idler on my car I removed the plastic cover from under the engine and pulled the idler out from underneath.

Thats the same way I removed the idler pulley on each of my three 2nd gen. Escorts - doing it from below. I used a 16mm box end wrench, a 6 point wrench. For some reason that bolt seemed to be awfully stiff/tight on each of my Escorts, but it came off with the box end wrench, having a pipe slid over the end of the wrench. When I put the bolt back in I used some 'thread locker', to prevent the bolt from seizing in the aluminum engine accessory bracket.

Getting the bottom splash shields off took a while on one car, due to the corrosion, but I needed to remove the engine and tranny, so the splash shields definitely had to come off. On another car, my 94 1.9L LX wagon, the splash shields were already missing.

I like to replace the serpentine belt idler pulley and the tensioner pulley, each time I replace the belt, i.e. each 100,000 miles, when I replace the timing chain.
I find it helps to raise the engine an inch or so, just to get the bolt removed that holds the tensioner assembly on the side of the accesory bracket.

The only thing I have ever noticed when raising the engine on my '88 Pony is that the wiring harness/connector is a little short on the TPS.