My Explorer now has 81,000 miles on the odo and during the last big rainstorm the serpentine belt. When installing. Ford Explorer and Ford Ranger. To replace the belt, all you gotta do is get a 3/8 drive ratchet with a 15mm socket. Place the socket on the bolt of the tensioner pulley. Push down with your right hand and pull the belt off with your left hand.

Todd, im no mechanic, but uh lets just say that changing a serp belt is something that i can handle. Seriously, the airbox is no issue whatsoever. Really, there is something different about your setup than a stock 5liter X. At least a 96 model.

There is no possible way on earth to reach my tensioner from the top unless you are a 5 year old bodybuilder. You gotta go from underneath. Im almost ashamed to admit it, but it was a PITA. The tensioner is about 3/4' away from the fan shroud, and the oil cooler is right in the way. I was holding the tensioner open with a cheater bar on a ratchet with my shoulder while wrestling the belt on. I threw a wrench sometime during the process, and im almost sure my neighbor's kids heard some profanity they didnt learn in grade school.

Honestly, changing a stupid belt is no different to me than changing plugs, and i will admit it was difficult on my model explorer. Hackmaster 5th Edition Character Creation on this page. The engine bay of the Explorer V8 and my Ranger with the Explorer engine are identical - I had a 1998 V8 mounty before we got the '03.

(BTW, the '03 has way more room under the hood). As for the differences, not sure what they would be. Take a look at my picture page, there are some shots of the engine out of the truck, showing the belt routing. When I remove the air box, I am able to reach in under the upper radiator hose, from where the air box is. Almost from the side. I put an offset craftsman professional box end wrench on the pulley bolt at ~9'oclock position (wrench horizontal pointing toward passengers side).

Pull up on it, release tension, let the wrench down until it hits the frame and it stays tight. Re-run the belt, pull up, slip over upper-center idler and release wrench. Do you have any pictures of the 96? I would be interested to see differences.

As for the oil cooler, are you speaking of when you are on the underside? I am now in the process of swapping out the serpentine belt, idler pulley and tensioner on my 96 Explorer 5.0.I have to agree that as of now it is not looking like an easy job. Appears at this time that the best way to the tensioner is from below.does not look like I can get access by removing the air box.

The Ford service information I have on cd is too basic to be of any help. I will take photos as I go and post for others in the future. Not sure yet how to remove the tensioner.but will figure it out somehow. If you are just removing the idler pulley / bearing, you need to loosen the bolt at the center of the pulley. If you are removing the entire tensioner assy, there are 2 or 3 bolts that hold it to the alumium alternator bracket.

As you can see in the picture, there is one gold bolt above the pulley, there is one behind it (once tension is released, you will see it. There may be one more behind my bracket, I can't remember. As for removing the air box, it just lets you have access from the side - right at the tensioner.

Wow, sure is nice to be able to work on an engine out of the vehicle!and that is one heck of a serpentine belt. I do appreciate the info on the bolts for removing the tensioner. I just replaced the pulley on the tensioner and not the whole set up.along with the upper idler pulley. I think the 96 Explorer 5.0 is set up differently than the Mountainer. Accessing the tensioner from the top is clearly not an easy task.accessing from the bottom was a piece of cake. I breezed through swapping the belt and tensioner from underneath.

I had removed the front wheels and the inside wheel well aprons since I needed to access the plugs to swap out wires. Just one bolt to replace the tensioner pulley and when it was time to install the belt I just used a section of copper pipe over the ratchet handle resting on top of the chassis rail. My hands were free to adjust the belt on all the different pulleys. Swapping the plug wires is another story.took forever. Course I was being diligent and careful. I took some digital photos and will get them posted.

It is 2245 hours and it has been a long day. Just changed my belt, took about a half hour since I did it wrong. Or the hard way. I didn't search for how to do it, just paid attention to the label. I took a 3/8' wrench and tryed the bolt on the front of the tensioner. Didn't feel right so I then went under and loosened via the bolt on the back. That worked, then I needed to shove a ratchet in there to hold my wrench.

Routing wasn't so bad but I wish I would've searched first! Fair Game 1995 Torrent. My biggest problem was loosening the thing. Oh, and my belt was $45 after tax from Schucks. This is supposedly supposed to outlast all the others by a big percentage.