Originally Posted by Labnerd

I had to print this thread and send it to one of my old techs, LOLs. He would cut the original belt off, lace the new one on, have somebody start the engine and slip the belt on the power steering pulley with a screw driver. He's the only person I know good/dumb enough to make it work and not get a broken arm out of it. I don't recommend you try it!

Originally Posted by ManualF150

If you think changing the serpentine belt on your longitudinal engine is hard... try a latitudinally placed engine... that is a NIGHTMARE!

I can change a serpentine belt with NO tools if it's got an auto pretensioner... just takes a little bit of muscle... and faster than you can go and get that socket and breaker bar.

Oh, and just be careful of your fingers if you do it... as it hurts if you get your fingers stuck on a tense belt.

Originally Posted by davenay

A 1/2" socket driver plugs straight into the tensioner, and allows you to loosen the belt. After that, you just start un threading everything. When you loosen tension, the easiest pulley to undo is the alternator, then you can let go of the tensioner.

It's all a tight fir, but you can do it without removing the fan and shroud.

Originally Posted by mitch150

Um, I think it's a 3/8" drive isn't it? I don't recall ever having to use a 1/2" drive on any tensioner in any vehicle.