due to my belt sueeking, i got a new idler pulley from autozone and brought it home.. the diameter of the one i got is much smaller then the one i pulled off the truck.

in fact, the one they gave me looks identical in size and shape to the belt tensioner pulley.

according to some of the pictures i see at autozone.com and advanceautoparts.com, many of the pulleys look like the one i picked up and the idler pulley and tensioner pulley #'s are the same.

any ideas on what is going on here?

 

ok guys, i installed the new (smaller) pulley i got and the truck doesnt squeek now.

I sprayed some water on the pulley while the truck was running and no squeeking was found.

maybe this will work........my only question is...

if the diameter of this pulley is smaller, that means the tensioner would have to be tighter then with the other one, and hopefully the belt wont come off....time will tell.

i will keep listening for squeeking.....

any advice is still appreciated....

jr

 

with a smaller pulley you would need a smaller belt. Sounds like the tensioner had enough spring to take up the slack.

 

do you think this new pulley is the right one?

 

hows the truck running? smaller pulley means more rotations to do the same job. you might see a loss in mileage, hp, or power somewhere.

 

truck runs fine......

 

Maybe on a driven pulley, Andy -- but for the tensioner I don't think it will affect those things.

 

maybe i am not clear here, but i put a smaller diameter pulley on the idler pulley.

 

Idler or tensioner -- it's all the same as far as the discussion goes. Basically, any non-driven pulley will not affect the overall ratio between the driving pulley and the accessories -- the belt will turn at the same speed it always has.

 

but why would this replacement pulley be samller then the original one?

 

sounds like you got the wrong one. What diameter did you have and what diameter did you get?

 

ok guys, i took my original pulley back to autozone as the new one was installed on truck.

the guy looked at it and had a Dayco one in the computer, not in stock but the picture looked like the one i had in hand.

so i went to advance auto and they had the plastic dayco one but the diameter was still smaller, so i asked him to check for a 93 3.0 ranger and it was the same so he checked the 4.0 ranger and had a metal one that was the same diameter as the original.

so i took the larger metal one for the 4.0 and am gonna use it on my 3.0

the original one on my truck may have been froma 4.0 before i owned it, i dont know.

i will install larger metal one tomorrow, and use the smaller one i bought eariler to replace tensioner pulley since the tensioner pulley on the truck now looked bad underneath belt.

what is the easiest way to remove tensioner pulley????

 

sorry to keep posting guys but after looking at the advance website, autozone, carparts.com and others, i notice that all the 4.0 rangers use the big idler pulley and my 1994 3.0 uses the smaller one....

which makes me now know that....the one that was on my truck since i bought it back last summer was not the right size so the smaller one i put on is for the 3.0 and the bigger one i bought tonight is not for a 3.0

i guess whoever had the truck before me put the big one on instead.......i wonder if the smaller one will help my truck with anything?

i will take back the bigger one.

 

I've always checked with www.motorcraft.com (click on parts look up) and then look for cross references to the same part number on napaonline.com in the non-NAPA Part # box. On Advance Auto's site (www.partsamerica.com) you can look up Motorcraft part numbers as they are special order items through their site. I've always had better luck that way comparing parts from one site to another. Take all the part numbers you've found and look up each one individually on ebaymotors.com. Eventually you will find some place that has all the part numbers for certain applications or parts cross referenced together.

 

I doubt that one pulley vs. the other will make much if any difference, lol. Good information, but it probably is a lot of concern over an issue that isn't so important.

Hope you finally get it done to your satisfaction.

 

My pulley wobbles so I amm going to replace it.... DId you install th 4.0? what results have you had?