trigley
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2014
- Messages
- 4
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
- Vehicle Year
- 1997
- Make / Model
- Ford
- Transmission
- Manual
Hello, I need some experienced help with this issue. I recently purchase a 1997 Ranger that had been sitting for a couple of years. I managed to get it started, but it ran very poorly, so I thought the valve timing might be off. I was right, someone had put a new belt in it but was off by a couple of teeth. Well, anyhow, I'm ready to put it back together, but whoever had it apart last didn't put the belt tensioner coil spring back on. My question is, can I do without this spring? Actually, I'm not sure what it's there for anyhow, because apparently the plate that holds the idler against the belt gets locked in place with a bolt, so the function of the spring must be just to determine the belt tension before locking it down. Can I just apply a reasonable amount of tension to the belt manually, then lock that clamping bolt down and be OK? Thanks very much for any help with this question.