Alternator belt guide/pulley broke

[cmalinowski]

The belt guide/pulley that is on the alternator broke. Actually fell off. My truck has 45k miles and is out of the B2B warranty. I was wondering if anyone knows whether this is covered under engine or powertrain warranties.

The motor will start, but no brakes or power steering (or alternator of course). Essentially, the truck is unusable and needs to be towed to the dealer. If not covered, I can probably do the work myself, but would like to have an idea before getting it towed to dealer.

Thanks,
Chris

[jesilvas]

Call and ask em. It'd be quickest if you need it right away.

[cmalinowski]

Originally Posted by jesilvas

Call and ask em. It'd be quickest if you need it right away.

They said "no" to that. Had it been the tensioner, then yes.

[jesilvas]

That's dumb.

[sinner6.0L]

do not drive the truck far without a belt on the accessory drive. it will only take a few miles of no coolant flow to overheat a 6.4

[cmalinowski]

Just as a follow-up to this. It looks like the bolt holding the pulley onto the alternator backed out and fell off some how. The bolt was missing. There is signs of the pulley wobbling and hitting the alternator housing (forgot to take pictures), but the threads were still good.

I would guess that as it backed out and the pulley had some play, it wobbled a bit before everything fell off completely.

I can tell you this, it was a chore finding the right alternator in the first place. I have dual alternators, this was the one on top. Once we had the alternator, getting the old one out was... er... interesting, but not too hard. You have to take the CAC pipe off and move it out of the way. We also took the battery out (the box makes a nice tool/bolt holder too). You can get to the alternator bolts fairly easily, although the bottom, rear one is best done with a socket extension.

It was a two-person job (for us at least) to rerun the serpentine belt. I was under the truck getting to the tensioner with a 3/8 socket while my buddy was up top putting the belt into place. It's tight trying to do anything in there. I can see where people would want to take the fan shroud off, but we didn't do that... it looked sort of difficult.

So, it wasn't the worst job in the world, but it's not as easy as the 6.0 stuff I've seen... and the 7.3 looks like it could almost change itself it's so easy.

@sinner6.0L: Thanks, I didn't drive it at all except to move it to the center of the driveway to work on it. I could just see that serp belt getting mangled around something while the engine was running. Ugh.

Chris

[Beatngu]

anyone lose the pulley? Ford says I have to buy the whole alternator and don't sell the pulley only

[cmalinowski]

Originally Posted by Beatngu

anyone lose the pulley? Ford says I have to buy the whole alternator and don't sell the pulley only

Yes. And I had to purchase the entire alternator. Sucks.

EDIT: I did purchase it from Papa Auto Parts for amazingly less than Ford.

[Beatngu]

anyone try this?
says V10 but I'd assume the pulleys would be the same

Family Car - Auto Parts and Accessories Catalog - Ford F-450 Super Duty Motorcraft Alternator Pulley