I hate these things, have snap-on, sykes tools to fit these, but always have a battle, 06 1600 Focus today Ford kit with lots of fitting bits, no instructions, what was wrong with a sprung loaded pulley ???

Hi Tony

"what was wrong with a sprung loaded pulley ??? "

simple answer really , production cost ££££ .

In any production industry the manufactures are always looking at ways to reduce production cost without effecting the product quality or function.

The numbers in car production are massive so the smallest gains add up quickly.

lets say Ford Produce 150,000 1.4 16V power unit per year. Each belt tensioner cost Ford £6.

That's £900,000 saving just by fitting a stretch belt.

cost cutting is a on going process , that's why we see so much plastic used on engines. Much cheaper than Steel or Die cast alloy.

It's like the spare tyre situation look at the cost saving per car , tyre , wheel , jack & tools fixtures and fittings.

weight saving and cost saving , win win situation.

just put a can of tyre weld in the boot and 3 years road side cover.

The only tools that really work well on the Fords are the Gates belt tools. They aren't cheap but if you do enough Fords they are worth the money.
I have found that the one for the Fiesta PAS belt, the Gates 003 works better using an old tensioner bolt head inwards, instead of the one in the kit. Less chance of chipping the outer rim of the pulley.

Hi Tony

I have had lots of fun with these, sometimes getting the stretchy belts back on has taken longer than the original job

I bought this last year, makes it so much easier

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00M6TRKLK

You may already have it

Peter

Hi Peter,

I do now, it was supplied in a Ford aux belt kit, retail £50 trade £20 so money to be earned, Ford kit comes with fitting tools but no instruction as to how to use those pieces of pressed steel, and the other bits in the kit, worked it out in the end and so simple, still had belt groove wander but a bit of sideways pressure got everything into line, still do not like stretch belts, only ever seen on Fords, but others now playing with these

I use the kit that with the Ford belts for Focus etc. A bit fiddly and a headscratch the first time you use them, but after that fairly straight forward

To avoid head-scratching, Gates belts come with installation instructions on the inside of the sleeve. There is also a good video on their website for the Ford water-pump belt showing the use of two 17mm wrenches with the tool.

As others have said, the Ford belt comes with the tool. Fitting instructions are easily found via Google. Always found the aftermarket tools a waste of time.

Hi

we use the ford kit,good price, save the tools so if you need to get factor belts (speed of availability)you can re use the tools

fitting instructions are on auto data

Aidan