gasgas
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There is nothing on Youtube to show you how to do this, believe me I have looked long and hard.
My full story is below, but to summarise the job:
To change the serpentine belt and power steering belt on a Mk 6 FWD Transit (mine's 2009) with air con (or maybe without it as well) you have to do this:
1) Jack the front drivers side up, remove the road wheel.
2) Remove the plastic spray guard moulding
3) Remove the power steering belt by undoing three bolts in the pump pulley.Just pull the pulley off and the belt comes with it. It has no tension adjustment facility. (That's another story)
4) On a piece of paper make a drawing of the route of the belt - which pulleys it goes round. Otherwise you'll spend two hours trying to figure it out when trying to fit the new one.
5) Find a 1970's Metabo sump drain plug multi-spanner from the back of your garage. I don't know if they still make these, but what you need is a male 1/2 square drive piece of metal that has a very short right angle drive on it, to fit in the belt tensioner lever recess. A standard 1/2" drive socket wrench won't fit in the space available.
6) With the 1/2" drive inserted into the belt tensioner lever, get a rachet strap and use it to pull the tool attached to the tensioner 'open' so the tension on the serpentine belt is relieved. Remove the belt from the pulleys - but you won't be able to completely remove it because of Ford's cunning engine design.
7) Relax the rachet strap and allow the tensioner to revert to its natural resting place.
8) You now have to remove the tensioner, or at least release it away from the engine block in order to completely remove the belt. The tensioner is bolted to the engine block by two 10mm bolts, one of which is just plain Very Difficult to get at and the other is Downright Impossible until you realise you have to first remove the air con pump.
9) Remove the air con pump wiring plug, which is a black clip-in plug on the top of the pump. You can just about reach this by standing on the road wheel you previoously removed and stretching right down behind the engine, with a torch to see what you hope to do, and pressing in the release catch.
10) Underneath the van reach up and undo the three bolts holding the pump to the block. They probably haven't ever been undone so they give with a 'crack' and you need a long-ish ring spanner. Move the pump away from the engine and you can now get at the two 10mm bolts holding the belt tensioner to the block.
11) Undo (or rather, loosen) the two belt tensioner bolts and move the tensioner away from the block sufficiently to slide the belt between the tensioner arm and the engine. Remove the belt.
12) Check the number printed on the belt. My original belt had the number FB6PK1670. I had bought a replacement belt from GSF Car Parts, using the vehicle registration number. It was wrong, the belt I got from them was labelled FB6PK1640. I think the 1670/40 relates to the length of the belt, probably in mm so I had to get the right one. The local Ford garage didn't have one in stock, it would take a week to get, and cost over £100 with the smaller power steering belt. Gulp. The local parts shop had a 1670 belt in stock and together with the smaller belt they cost £32.
13) Feed the new belt round the pulleys. You may find access easier if you first remove the top most idler pulley that sits above the engine mounting.
14) Other than that, reassembly is the reverse of the dismantling.
15) The smaller belt round the power steering pump is what Ford quaintly call a 'stretchy belt'. In other words in order to save 0.32p per engine they do away with any adjustment and just force the belt over the pulleys putting the belt under near-breaking strain and the bearings overloaded. The way to get this belt on is either with a 'special tool' from Amazon costing between £10 and £40, or just fit it first to the smaller pulley and then as much as you can to the crankshaft pulley, then with a rachet spanner wind the crankshaft pulley round holding the belt on to the pulley with the palm of your other hand. Then wind the pulley back a bit and get the remains of your palm from between the pulley and the belt. Or, don't let your skin get between the pulley and belt, it's your choice.
16) Replace the plastic spray guard and the road wheel, start the engine and stand back and admire the fact that you have saved probably £400 in garage costs. Even if you are 71 yrs old like me, you CAN do it!
The long version:
I am chuffed to bits that on the third try yesterday I managed to change the serpentine belt and alternator belt on my Transit. I was determined to do it after the last garage bill I had for my car, I thought I would probably be £400 better off if I did it myself. There's an incentive for you.
None of you will know how difficult this is, but it makes changing a cam belt on an average car fairly easy. My first two attempts in past weeks failed when I got quite a few bits off and then came unstuck because I couldn't undo the last 10mm bolt. It's impossible to see, you can only feel it down in the depths of the back of the engine. I decided that so what if I need to buy a special length, special shaped 10mm spanner or socket, it will be worth it. So I set about it with a vigour and vim. I got to the same stalling point as before, the inaccessible 10mm bolt. Crawling underneath with my head in amongst the steering rack, suspension and brake pipes I found that what was blocking access to the bolt wasn't as I had thought a lump of engine, but a big lump of air conditioning pump. It's a big thing, that. If I could move the pump out of the way and remove the wiring to it I reckoned I could get at the hidden bolt. It was quite a struggle and used all of the most obscure sets of sockets, spanners and 1970's Special Tool For Something in my garage. I got the pump off, then I could get the belt tensioner loosened using a special sump drain plug tool and a rachet strap. I got the tensioner off, which is what I couldn't do before. The tensioner has to be removed in order to slide the old belt off and the new one on.
Then I noticed that the new serpentine belt I got from GSF car parts via the registration number was wrong. The old belt had a number on it, FB6PK1670. The new belt had the number FB6PK1640. Oh dear, I think the 1640 / 1670 relate to the length. FB6 relates to the fact that the belt is a ribbed one, with 6 peaks in it. I think 1640 / 70 is the length, probably in mm. So the new belt I had wasn't going to fit. I phoned the local Ford garage and of course they didn't have one, and it would take a week to get. What a load of rubbish! For my 1992 Mercedes they can get ANYTHING, even if it has to come from Stuttgart within two days. On top of that they wanted over £100 for the two belts, the serpentine belt and the power steering belt. I said that was too much and called a Rugby parts shop which had them in stock, £32 for both belts so I shot over there and got them. OK they aren't OEM but I will carry the old one for a spare which will mean the new one will never break.
Here's another thing.
I got everything back together and it runs just fine, but have you heard of 'stretchy belts'? Ford had this brilliant idea to save 0.324p on each engine by eliminating a bolt and a flat steel bracket which used to adjust the tension on the alternator, or in this case the power steering pump. What they do is bolt them rigidly to the engine block and devise a way of making a drive belt that stretches to just before its breaking tension when fitted. It is a struggle to fit as you might imagine, but it saves 0.324p on each engine, which matters more. And of course they will sell more alternators / power steering pumps because the bearings are overloaded and won't last as long.
My Transit is now fully serviced and ready for the off to Germanyland.
My full story is below, but to summarise the job:
To change the serpentine belt and power steering belt on a Mk 6 FWD Transit (mine's 2009) with air con (or maybe without it as well) you have to do this:
1) Jack the front drivers side up, remove the road wheel.
2) Remove the plastic spray guard moulding
3) Remove the power steering belt by undoing three bolts in the pump pulley.Just pull the pulley off and the belt comes with it. It has no tension adjustment facility. (That's another story)
4) On a piece of paper make a drawing of the route of the belt - which pulleys it goes round. Otherwise you'll spend two hours trying to figure it out when trying to fit the new one.
5) Find a 1970's Metabo sump drain plug multi-spanner from the back of your garage. I don't know if they still make these, but what you need is a male 1/2 square drive piece of metal that has a very short right angle drive on it, to fit in the belt tensioner lever recess. A standard 1/2" drive socket wrench won't fit in the space available.
6) With the 1/2" drive inserted into the belt tensioner lever, get a rachet strap and use it to pull the tool attached to the tensioner 'open' so the tension on the serpentine belt is relieved. Remove the belt from the pulleys - but you won't be able to completely remove it because of Ford's cunning engine design.
7) Relax the rachet strap and allow the tensioner to revert to its natural resting place.
8) You now have to remove the tensioner, or at least release it away from the engine block in order to completely remove the belt. The tensioner is bolted to the engine block by two 10mm bolts, one of which is just plain Very Difficult to get at and the other is Downright Impossible until you realise you have to first remove the air con pump.
9) Remove the air con pump wiring plug, which is a black clip-in plug on the top of the pump. You can just about reach this by standing on the road wheel you previoously removed and stretching right down behind the engine, with a torch to see what you hope to do, and pressing in the release catch.
10) Underneath the van reach up and undo the three bolts holding the pump to the block. They probably haven't ever been undone so they give with a 'crack' and you need a long-ish ring spanner. Move the pump away from the engine and you can now get at the two 10mm bolts holding the belt tensioner to the block.
11) Undo (or rather, loosen) the two belt tensioner bolts and move the tensioner away from the block sufficiently to slide the belt between the tensioner arm and the engine. Remove the belt.
12) Check the number printed on the belt. My original belt had the number FB6PK1670. I had bought a replacement belt from GSF Car Parts, using the vehicle registration number. It was wrong, the belt I got from them was labelled FB6PK1640. I think the 1670/40 relates to the length of the belt, probably in mm so I had to get the right one. The local Ford garage didn't have one in stock, it would take a week to get, and cost over £100 with the smaller power steering belt. Gulp. The local parts shop had a 1670 belt in stock and together with the smaller belt they cost £32.
13) Feed the new belt round the pulleys. You may find access easier if you first remove the top most idler pulley that sits above the engine mounting.
14) Other than that, reassembly is the reverse of the dismantling.
15) The smaller belt round the power steering pump is what Ford quaintly call a 'stretchy belt'. In other words in order to save 0.32p per engine they do away with any adjustment and just force the belt over the pulleys putting the belt under near-breaking strain and the bearings overloaded. The way to get this belt on is either with a 'special tool' from Amazon costing between £10 and £40, or just fit it first to the smaller pulley and then as much as you can to the crankshaft pulley, then with a rachet spanner wind the crankshaft pulley round holding the belt on to the pulley with the palm of your other hand. Then wind the pulley back a bit and get the remains of your palm from between the pulley and the belt. Or, don't let your skin get between the pulley and belt, it's your choice.
16) Replace the plastic spray guard and the road wheel, start the engine and stand back and admire the fact that you have saved probably £400 in garage costs. Even if you are 71 yrs old like me, you CAN do it!
The long version:
I am chuffed to bits that on the third try yesterday I managed to change the serpentine belt and alternator belt on my Transit. I was determined to do it after the last garage bill I had for my car, I thought I would probably be £400 better off if I did it myself. There's an incentive for you.
None of you will know how difficult this is, but it makes changing a cam belt on an average car fairly easy. My first two attempts in past weeks failed when I got quite a few bits off and then came unstuck because I couldn't undo the last 10mm bolt. It's impossible to see, you can only feel it down in the depths of the back of the engine. I decided that so what if I need to buy a special length, special shaped 10mm spanner or socket, it will be worth it. So I set about it with a vigour and vim. I got to the same stalling point as before, the inaccessible 10mm bolt. Crawling underneath with my head in amongst the steering rack, suspension and brake pipes I found that what was blocking access to the bolt wasn't as I had thought a lump of engine, but a big lump of air conditioning pump. It's a big thing, that. If I could move the pump out of the way and remove the wiring to it I reckoned I could get at the hidden bolt. It was quite a struggle and used all of the most obscure sets of sockets, spanners and 1970's Special Tool For Something in my garage. I got the pump off, then I could get the belt tensioner loosened using a special sump drain plug tool and a rachet strap. I got the tensioner off, which is what I couldn't do before. The tensioner has to be removed in order to slide the old belt off and the new one on.
Then I noticed that the new serpentine belt I got from GSF car parts via the registration number was wrong. The old belt had a number on it, FB6PK1670. The new belt had the number FB6PK1640. Oh dear, I think the 1640 / 1670 relate to the length. FB6 relates to the fact that the belt is a ribbed one, with 6 peaks in it. I think 1640 / 70 is the length, probably in mm. So the new belt I had wasn't going to fit. I phoned the local Ford garage and of course they didn't have one, and it would take a week to get. What a load of rubbish! For my 1992 Mercedes they can get ANYTHING, even if it has to come from Stuttgart within two days. On top of that they wanted over £100 for the two belts, the serpentine belt and the power steering belt. I said that was too much and called a Rugby parts shop which had them in stock, £32 for both belts so I shot over there and got them. OK they aren't OEM but I will carry the old one for a spare which will mean the new one will never break.
Here's another thing.
I got everything back together and it runs just fine, but have you heard of 'stretchy belts'? Ford had this brilliant idea to save 0.324p on each engine by eliminating a bolt and a flat steel bracket which used to adjust the tension on the alternator, or in this case the power steering pump. What they do is bolt them rigidly to the engine block and devise a way of making a drive belt that stretches to just before its breaking tension when fitted. It is a struggle to fit as you might imagine, but it saves 0.324p on each engine, which matters more. And of course they will sell more alternators / power steering pumps because the bearings are overloaded and won't last as long.
My Transit is now fully serviced and ready for the off to Germanyland.
