Gday all, just the other day I gave my Fairmont a little bit to overtake a taxi and it decided to s**t itself and fling the belt off the grooves and shred about a quarter of itself off. I was only a little ways from home so quite stupidly I decided to limp it home and fix it today. The belt seemed perfect when I got the car and I've barely put a dint in it's 250,000 k's since owning it. I have a love hate relationship with this car, I know it's 11 years old and got some traveling under it car but I've barely put 3K on the clock and it's only been trouble since I got the bastard.

It was making a very loud knocking/slapping noise and I figured it was just the belt taking it's final breaths. After much stuffing around I managed to pop a new belt on and expecting no more horrible noise started her up, how wrong I was, it's just as bad as before! I looked around for some loose bits flopping about perhaps and didn't find too much debris or anything. The sound is definitely coming from the front of the engine but I don't know exactly where from.

As an aside the car kinda f@rt out and drops revs occasionally but I'm almost certain this is due to s**t leads and plugs. I checked em out fairly recently and they could definitely have done with a change but I figured I'd sort it all out next service in about 500ks. Also I noticed today that I suddenly had absolutely no power steering fluid all of a sudden when just the other week it was full, curious. Tomorrow I plan on going over the power steering pump and checking for leaks or something else, I was thinking maybe it spilled out onto the pulley and the belt just slipped off. I was also going to pop the belt out again and run the engine for a bit to try and pinpoint where the sound is coming from with a stethoscope, good or bad idea? Any other tips or ideas on what it could be or where to start?

HI. CHECK YOUR HARMONIC BALANCER. IT SOUNDS LIKE IT HAS MOVED BACK. IF YOUR CAR IS A EF IT WILL HAVE A CRANK ANGLE SENSOR BEHIND THE HARMONIC BALANCER I BET YOUR BALANCER IS RUBBING ON IT THAT WILL PROBABLY BE YOUR MISSFIRING.
IF SO YOU MUST REPLACE BALANCER & CRANK SENSOR.

Worn Tensioner/Tensioner Pulleys.

try these:
http://www.fordmods.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=56555
http://www.fordmods.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=20005

Cheers for the help fellas, haven't gotten round to checking out the harmonic balancer but I noticed that the belt sits forward on the water pump pulley as soon as you start it up. The pulley seems to have a bit of a slope to it so I'm off to buy a new pulley today. Or a whole water pump, depends how expensive it is. Oh and the noise, bit of old belt slapping around and stuck on the crankshaft, how embarassing Power steering fluid is still a mystery but I couldn't see any leaks. Thanks again

Hello again, bit of an update, picked out all the chunks of the previous belt and now car is quiet and runs fine I also bought a new waterpump thinking the pulley on that was the cause seeing as how it was hanging off a bit there. Put that in as well as a new thermostat today, nope, no different.

The belt sits very, very close on the lower tensioner which is a bit of a cause for concern. The top tensioner pulley is also loose compared to all the other pulley's and has a bit of a wobble to it as well. What basically happens is as soon as I crank the car over it pushes the belt forward a little bit on the water pump pulley, but doesn't immediately throw it off, just happened that once when I floored it. The harmonic balancer doesn't appear to have moved back and everything seems to be all lined up except the water pump and the alternator SEEM to be sitting forward ever so slightly but I cant really tell.

Mechanic over the phone told me a loose pulley on the tensioner or the belt is off to replace the whole tensioner assembly, but after just spending 80 bucks today for s**t all I wanna make sure I'm not gonna blow another 200 or whatever for the tensioner as well. How much would I be looking at for one and where's somewhere good to go?


See here it's being pulled to the edge but isn't actually off, if I crank the car over it'll normally slide off ever so slightly and sit there and I'm worried that if I plant my foot again it'll slip right off

It also looks like the alternator is forward a bit and looks like it's pulling the belt off the water pump possibly?[/img]

Here's how close it is to the tensioner bracket bit.

Actually looking at the pictures doesn't make it seem so bad but it looks worse in person. Any help would be appreciated

Update time, just changed over the tensioner to one from the wreckers that looks to be in better condition. I pulled the other one out and there was a huge scratch gouged round the bottom pulley, fun fun! Changed it though and there was absolutely no difference at all.


Heres a better photo of how it sits after the engine is cranked, the car is still drivable like this but I'm probably ruining my belt


This shows you how it's being pulled off from the bottom tensioner pulley as well, didn't notice that until today when I pulled the fans and air intake out to fit the new tensioner today.

I'm left with two alternatives now, it's either the alternator is forward for some reason and is pulling it off or the harmonic balancer is doing it. I'll play with or replace those and see what happens. If worse comes to worse I'm putting more washers behind the tensioner to push it forward more and bring it all in line. I don't think it's the harmonic balancer because even though it has a slight wobble to it that I noticed, racer said the harmonic balancer could've moved back, which would pull the belt back with it, not push it forwards. I have no idea what could push the harmonic balancer forwards, anyone care to enlighten me? I'm pretty sure the only thing holding it on is the fact that when the belt jumps forwards the front of the tensioner catches it and continuously rubs it. Sigh, 8 hours work and $200 so far. I'll keep this updated because hopefully it'll be a good reference in future for others.

Problem solved, harmonic balancer was loose as a hookers vagina. Tightened the nut up and hammered it on more, all good now. Arrrrrrrrrr, always the way.

nice!

Least you have a better tensioner, new water pump, new belt and everything inspected!