Serpentine Belt Replacement... Tensioner Issues

[shoobs99svt]

Hey all,

So far ive already read a bunch of threads as well as my Haynes manual on how simple it is to loosen the tensioner to swap out the belt... but am not having so much fun over here. Am I seeing everything wrong or does my tensioner NOT have a 1/2" drive for a breaker bar?

View attachment 250483

Instead it seems to have a threaded hole where I would assume a 1/2" drive would be. The part says "Ford" it and as far as I know is factory original.

Any ideas on how to loosen it up?

 

[bdcardinal]

take that bracket cover thingy off and see whats hiding under it. the one with the nuts on the studs.

 

[shoobs99svt]

Hey BDCardinal...

I took that piece off this morning, but underneath was nothing to do with relieving the belt tension. Im really not sure what that bracket actually does here except for getting in the way lol . BUT, here's what I found after some google'ing:

'99 Cobra belt tensioner? - SVTPerformance

Apparently some of our new '99 cobras with "The Fix" had the factory tensioner (1/2" drive equipped) swapped to this one (hole instead). An additional nut/bolt combo can thread into this hole and provide the leverage point needed to change the belt.

I went ahead and removed this (POS ) tensioner and will swap for a AZ / OEM Ford part with the 1/2" drive for next time.

Hope this helps the next '99 owner