new member with question

[forcefed]

I'm a proud owner of my first diesel. Its a 1993 F250 4x4 7.3 IDI turbo with only 83,000 miles. So far I love it, Now on the way home today I shredded the serpetine belt. So I stopped and bought a new one and when I installed it, it seems like the belt is overhanging the tensioner pulley about 1/8" to 1/4". The pulley seem to be ok but the assembly spring seems to be loose. It has good tension but seems to be sitting in toward the motor farther than the rest of the pulleys. After it leaves the tension pulley its right on the edge of the water pump pulley shaving the edge of my new belt already. Do I need a new tension assembly or is there somthing I'm missing.???? Thanks

 

[subway]

first congratulations on your purchase and welcome to the site.

first i would check to make sure the tensioner arm bolt is tight but it sounds like the bushings in your tensioner are shot letting it ride off center and its going to quickly shread another belt. if that is the case you should replace the tensioner arm to fix it, and if you havent done it make sure the SCA's in your coolent are up to par.

 

[forcefed]

The guy who I bought it from gave me test strips. He said he just has the coolant changed and additive put in. I'm still going to check it though. I've been looking at the tensioner assembly from advance auto. Pretty cheap fix if that is it. Hope it is. thanks for the info.

 

[icanfixall]

What you may have is maybe 2 differant problems. First as posted above it could be a bad tensioner or the idler pulley. Secondly you may have the wrong width belt on it. The powerstrokes used a wider belt. I think the idi belts were 7 grooves and the powerstrokes were 8 grooves. Check it out. You wouldn't be the first person to get sold the wrong part. P.S. Welcome aboard here. Lots of answers just waiting for the questions.

 

[towcat]

Welcome to the site!
How about starting out by identifying your tensioner assembly?
Here's three pics. tell me which one you have.....
note the "body" of the tensioner.

 

[Muddinkev44]

yeah I agree it does sound like your tensioner....mine is also going bad....if you stand to the side and look at your pullys you will notice that the tensioner is probably cocked...your spring is going bad....mine is to the point that the pully is wearing into the bolt to keep it on the engine.....DO NOT BUY THIS PART FROM NAPA!!!!!!!!!....you will just waste your time....the part number they have in their book gives you a tensioner with a longer arm....and it wont fit....I have tried 3 different napa stores and they all have the same part number...it seems like they dont have any correct part number for anything on that engine cause its happened to me a few times...

 

[forcefed]

looks like I read this too late, I went to town early this morning and bought a new tension assembly. Yes I went to napa and after reading the last post, I hope mine fits now. I'm going to find out here in a few. The spring was shot I'm thinking, the pulley was good no problems, but the tensioner itself had lots of play in it. let you guys know what I find out. Thanks for the responses.

 

[towcat]

here's the thing guys...
the truck came from the factory with the tensioner like the one in the first pic. how to tell? the spring is exposed. The updated ones is the pics in two and three. But in order to make it work, you need to buy the bracket it mounts on. I have done mime already and the part numbers is in the "parts bin" in the tech articles. The third one with the dampner shock is a nice idea, but very expensive and masks a larger problem. If the tensioner is dancing around, you have a bent pulley.

 

[subway]

yeah I agree it does sound like your tensioner....mine is also going bad....if you stand to the side and look at your pullys you will notice that the tensioner is probably cocked...your spring is going bad....mine is to the point that the pully is wearing into the bolt to keep it on the engine.....DO NOT BUY THIS PART FROM NAPA!!!!!!!!!....you will just waste your time....the part number they have in their book gives you a tensioner with a longer arm....and it wont fit....I have tried 3 different napa stores and they all have the same part number...it seems like they dont have any correct part number for anything on that engine cause its happened to me a few times...

are you sure you are giving the right year? form working at a parts store sometimes vehicles have a year or two older engine or parts in them. like mine i have a 93 motor in a 94 truck and i does make a difference sometimes.

of course parts stores can be wrong to....

 

[forcefed]

Well the napa one worked fine. Everything is good now, belts line up with no rubbing or trying to walk off. Thanks for all the info on this,