92 Taurus Idler Pulley Bearing

[Fred Mayfield]

The idler bearing on a 93 Ford Taurus 3.0 after a week of making noise
self-destructed yesterday. There's metal bits and pieces here and there and
the pulley moves back and forth 5-10 degrees.

My set of metric wrenches jumps from a 17 to a 20 neither of which fit the
bolt. Putting a pair of Vise-Grips on as tight as I could squeeze it and
with a cheater bar on the Vise-Grips, I could see the pliers flexing but the
bolt wasn't moving. So, here are the questions:

What size wrench is it? Metric or SAE?
Is there a special tool for this purpose?
Is it standard right-handed threads?
Is there something special I need to know to remove the bolt?
Does the new part include the bearing only or is it a bearing and pulley
assembly?
In case the bolt snaps off, just how screwed am I and what options are
available?

The car's no treasure, but it gets me to work and back. Would hate to turn a
$50 job into a $500 job for lack of knowledge and experience.

TYIA

[Marc]

Your probably looking at about $90 for the idler pulley assembly. It should
be an 18mm nut with standard rotation threads. No dpecial tool. If you break
the stud, your screwed. There isn't any room to drill out the stud without
pulling the motor.

Marc

"Fred Mayfield" <mayf...@nuevanetspam.net> wrote in message
news:EvMXb.15045$ng6....@fe2.texas.rr.com...

[Thomas Moats]

Some of the bolts are torex, some are metrics, buy a set wrenches they are not
expensive. They are quite a bit less expensive than tearing up parts with
pliers. The proper tools save your knuckles and keep your body fluids where they
belong, inside you. Anything special to know? Righty tighty lefty loosey. It's a
standard right hand thread. The bearing comes with the pulley. If the bolt
breaks off, take out the mounting piece and extract the remaining part of the
bolt.

"Fred Mayfield" <mayf...@nuevanetspam.net> wrote in message
news:EvMXb.15045$ng6....@fe2.texas.rr.com...

[jim]

oh i never had to drill out on the taurus, but doing so on other engines
i had, i used a 90 degree angle drill bit and a short center drill bill
from my machinest tools and never had a problem.. and more than likely
if he ever breaks the head off the remainder stud will just be hand
tight... in most cases its the head of most bolts that are held so tight
to the surface that once the head is gone the threads(if not bottomed
out ) will only be hand tight and can come out with a pair of vice
grips... but he probably only needs some leverage with a 2 foot breaker
bar.. i use as old tork wrench about that size to break most nuts/bolts
when i cant get them loose with a standard socket handle(too short for
needed leverage).....

[Fred Mayfield]

Thanks all. It was in fact an 18mm. Bought a combination wrench and now is
more complete. Bolt came loose without much effort. Replacement pulley was
cheap enough, but a tad smaller than the original. Checked several places
and all were the same. The tensioner seems to have enough spare tension to
take up the additional slack.

Test drive for a couple of days and give it back to the wife. Hope my
Explorer survives her!

Interesting idea to use a right angle drill attachment. I'll remember that
one in case I get screwed in the future.

Fred

"Fred Mayfield" <mayf...@nuevanetspam.net> wrote in message
news:EvMXb.15045$ng6....@fe2.texas.rr.com...

[Mercury]

interesting that a FORD will use metric sizes... u know american car not
using american sized hardware...

just interesting in my opinion.

Ken

"Fred Mayfield" <mayf...@nuevanetspam.net> wrote in message

news:AUTXb.20992$ng6....@fe2.texas.rr.com...

[Stephen H. Westin]

"Mercury" <mer...@optonline.net> writes:

> interesting that a FORD will use metric sizes... u know american car not
> using american sized hardware...
>
> just interesting in my opinion.

Not surprising at all; the 1981 Escort was the first metric North
American Ford. I don't think anyone in the car industry designs in
English any more. Maybe Morgan...

--
-Stephen H. Westin
Any information or opinions in this message are mine: they do not
represent the position of Cornell University or any of its sponsors.

[Frank Knight]

And much of the mid-late 70's GM was also metric, first to convert, if I
recall.
"Stephen H. Westin" <westin*nos...@graphics.cornell.edu> wrote in message
news:ulln33...@graphics.cornell.edu...

[Stephen H. Westin]

"Frank Knight" <fdkn...@mindspring.com> writes:

> And much of the mid-late 70's GM was also metric, first to convert, if I
> recall.
> "Stephen H. Westin" <westin*nos...@graphics.cornell.edu> wrote in message
> news:ulln33...@graphics.cornell.edu...
> > "Mercury" <mer...@optonline.net> writes:
> >
> > > interesting that a FORD will use metric sizes... u know american car
> not
> > > using american sized hardware...
> > >
> > > just interesting in my opinion.
> >
> > Not surprising at all; the 1981 Escort was the first metric North
> > American Ford. I don't think anyone in the car industry designs in
> > English any more. Maybe Morgan...

I think the 1980 X-body (introduced in April of '79) was the first
all-metric GM car. The service manual contains a hilarious section
about the 6.35mm bolt. You see, apparently someone wanted an exact
metric equivalent to a 1/4-inch bolt, and when you're GM, you can make
this happen. So the result was a 1/4-inch bolt with metric thread
pitch!

The Pinto had a number of metric bolts with English heads on its
German 2.0-liter engine.