Replacing belt

[tucker0104]

1997 7.3L. Recently started squeaking so I bought a new belt. Went out to take a look at it today and it looks like it is a torq bit. Does anyone know what size? What is the easiest way to get the belt off? Does anyone have a part number for the cheater bar?

[Fordman247365]

are you changing the belt or pulley? what cheater bar?

[351fifty]

There is a tensioner pulley, put your ratchet on there and the rest should come to ya pretty easily

[backwoodsboy]

Its just a standard socket on the tensioner pulley to remove the belt. 15mm I believe. To release tension, turn it counter-clockwise (towards passenger fender well). All I had was a 3/8" drive socket with a stubby handle when I did mine, so I put a 2' long piece of pipe over the handle and used that as a cheater bar. Plenty of leverage to release tension with one hand and get belt on/off with the other.
If you're removing the tension pulley (or idler pulley for that matter) from the arm, you'll need a t50 torx attatched to a 1/2drive socket IIRC.
My memory is a little fuzzy, but one of the tension/idler pulleys might be reverse threaded. Hopefully someone else can chime in on that.