2000 4.0 Belt Tensioner

[wrightz28]

ehhh, little weirded out here.

As I was pulling into my driveway (thank god) I heard a thud as if I ran something over. Low and behold as I came to a stop the check gauges light was on along with the battery low and I figured the belt snapped.

When I got out to recover the the carcus of the belt, I found half the tensioner laying there.

It has the original Ford markings, but is not in bad shape at all. It literally sheered the base mount in half. I searched the forums to see if this is common but alas, not much out there.

Common issue? I've seen the GM ones split the casing and run cocked over, but never sheer itself into bits and pieces?

[wrightz28]

Ok,

After a morning of running around, simple problem. The tensioner in question when originally manufactured did not have any type of anit-corrosion protecent added to the locating wahser and coupled with the high tension of the alternator directly above it causes the failure.

The interesting learning factor, after going to 3 different places looking for the tensioner and everybody trying to give me the wrong one, my particular Explorer is a "Civil Package" with a high output alternator for the extra power demand of lighting and on board laptop (hence the the lighter socket that fried my cell phone ). So everybody was trying to give me the standard tensioner versus the one made for the particular application.

So, now I have a nice brand new factory tensioner w/matching part numbers to the original at a good price for my "inconvenience".

[shorod]

And hopefully it's properly treated with corrosion inhibitor.

How did you determine that it has the Civil Package? I can see that being a helpful piece of information in the future.

-Rod

[wrightz28]

As said, found the right guy at the right dealer who knew exactly why everybody kept pushing the wrong part. So he said, yeah, the one you have is for the civil package.

Finally got her all back together again after finding that the old one blowing apart did in fact rip a chunk from the upper radiaor hose and sliced 2 wires for the MAF sensor.

Luckily, I Found what I thought was a oil leak on the left side to be a rotted hose from the EVAP system spraying directly back on the exhaust manifold.

Weird part now, the AC compressor will not cycle at all, even at MaxAC.

Eh well, nother project for nother day. It's Miller time and I'M COLD. This just had to happen on the freak 20 degree day this late in the season.

[wrightz28]

Originally Posted by wrightz28

Weird part now, the AC compressor will not cycle at all, even at MaxAC.

After an exentsive test drive the A/C is cycling as "normal" again.