I drive a 2002 ford ranger 3.0 and I’m looking to bypass my power steering pulley because my power steering seized. Not sure the best way to route a new serpentine belt. Don’t mind bypassing AC too if it makes it easier.

 

Welcome to the forum

From this diagram: https://www.2carpros.com/forum/autom..._ranbelt_1.jpg

You "might" be able to use a shorter belt from crank pulley to AC pulley, it might "clear" the idler pulley

The thing you need to keep in mind is the direction each pulley needs to turn/spin, but its easy to figure out
A RIBBED pulley spins in the same direction of crank spin, a smooth pulley spins in opposite direction, so pullies need to match belt surface

First I would remove the belt from crank pulley if its even still there, lol
Start COLD engine, battery light will stay on
See if you can even turn the steering wheel with no power steering pump without breaking the steering wheel, lol
It creates ALOT of stress on steering components without the power assist, so you could break something else
Non-power steering vehicles had larger steering wheels, thicker steering shafts and longer pitman arm for leverage

You can run the engine ONLY for 60-90seconds without water pump(no fan belt), which is a long time, but you do need to shut off the engine sooner than later


If its acceptable then use a string to follow the path of the shorter belt around all the pullies then measure that string to get new shorter belt

 

Haven’t had power steering for over a year, wheel isn’t much harder to turn without ps. Routing it the way you said was my plan but the gap looks small and unsure if the belt would rub together or not. I would just replace the pump and pulley but the issue is all my lines have corroded away and I don’t want to deal with that headache since old ranger doesn’t have too much life let in her lol.

 

Use a section of old belt to check clearances

Never had a 3.0l so not sure how the AC Compressor mounts to its bracket
But if is bolted to its mount at an angle pointing away from engine, then you could add spacers to move it up and out a bit to get a little more clearance