How do you fit a ford 1.4 tdci alternator drive belt?

Answer 1

1/ Jack up the front of the car and remove the drivers-side front wheel.

2/ Lay under the car and unscrew the 2 hex screws that hold the plastic alternator drive belt cover to the front drivers-side chassis, and remove to expose the crankshaft pulley, idler, tensioner and air-con compressor pulley (if fitted).

3/ Working under the car: take a 14mm spanner and locate it on the end of the tensioner bolt and firmly rotate clockwise (relieving the spring tension) to slacken and remove the belt.

4/ While rotating the tensioner with your spanner, pass a 4mm drill bit through a hole in the body of the tensioner and into a locating hole behind the tensioner to lock the tensioner in the (fully-slackened) position, you can then use both hands to easily remove the belt from all but the top (Power Steering) pulley.

5/ Always draw a sketch of how the belt is routed around the various pulleys to aid correct replacement and completely remove the belt (upwards and away) from the power steering pulley inside the engine bay.

All 5 steps are relatively easy and straight forward and should take around 20 minutes.

Replacement is the reversal of removal, remembering to check that the new belt is correctly routed around the pulleys, take up the spring tension with your 14mm spanner from under the car and remove the 4mm drill bit from the tensioner to allow the tensioner to remove the slack and automatically provide the correct tension to the new belt. before replacing the plastic cover, check that the crankshaft sensor (beside the crankshaft pulley) has not been accidentally disturbed. Fit 3 new cable ties and re-attach rubber pipe to belt cover once re-fitted to chassis, replace road wheel and remove the jack.

Job complete... 45 minutes max.