I did a Fiesta ST Timing Belt, Here are my observations (and problems)

[madhatter]

get the right kit. i'm buttoning up mine now and i've now gone through two (!) crank pulley holder tools. the first one was too long and was not removable once the pulley was snugged up, the other was the right length, but the tooth that holds the pulley wasn't long enough and i had to shim it with washers to get it to engage the back of the pulley. what a CF. how there can be that many poorly manufactured tool kits out there is astounding. the pulley removal tool also was the wrong size and i had to go get a 3 jaw puller to get the pulley off the crank.

this job is a real PITA. at least when i pull something apart it comes apart ok. the original belt looked good and isn't cracked. even the serpentine belt looks new at 146k miles. The axle seals though are done and i had to get more, which is delaying finishing the job, and i'm looking at a small amount of carbon build up in cylinders 1 and 4 that i'll probably do a cleaning on before the intake manifold goes back on. Cylinders 2 and 3 look really good fwiw.

 

[oaebcr]

get the right kit. i'm buttoning up mine now and i've now gone through two (!) crank pulley holder tools. the first one was too long and was not removable once the pulley was snugged up, the other was the right length, but the tooth that holds the pulley wasn't long enough and i had to shim it with washers to get it to engage the back of the pulley. what a CF. how there can be that many poorly manufactured tool kits out there is astounding. the pulley removal tool also was the wrong size and i had to go get a 3 jaw puller to get the pulley off the crank.

this job is a real PITA. at least when i pull something apart it comes apart ok. the original belt looked good and isn't cracked. even the serpentine belt looks new at 146k miles. The axle seals though are done and i had to get more, which is delaying finishing the job, and i'm looking at a small amount of carbon build up in cylinders 1 and 4 that i'll probably do a cleaning on before the intake manifold goes back on. Cylinders 2 and 3 look really good fwiw.

What kit name did you get? I need this done soon, but with the problems and difficulty described in this thread I think I’ll get a shop to do it. Thanks for the heads up

 

[madhatter]

this one:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NB6TCXK
its rubbish. the flywheel locking tool and the crank pin work though.

this is the only-slightly-less-useless crank pulley holder:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B977W7S4
two washers, and this one is good. stupid though that Ford won't sell their kits through dealers, and there are so many crap toolkits that finding a decent one is so difficult.

 

[HAHAFiST]

DId anyone here struggle with getting their crank pulley off the shaft? Mine is seized even with the stretch bolt removed. I'm looking at some pullers that can pull from the insider of the pulley currently.... and getting a map torch.

 

[madhatter]

me. i had to go buy a 3 jaw puller, because the harmonic balancer puller that came in my useless tool kit for the timing belt job didn't fit either. 3 jaw puller was the trick, just hated to walk away from the job to get to the autoparts store.

make sure you've got the flywheel holding tool in and the butterfly on the cams, as well as the pin on the crank. even with the 3 jaw puller, i had to spin the pulley on the crank in both directions, twisting it back and forth while pulling it off. I did use a heat gun and some PB blaster before i went to the parts store to get the puller. leaving that sit probably helped as much as anything else. probably the hardest part of the job. hang in there!

 

[HAHAFiST]

me. i had to go buy a 3 jaw puller, because the harmonic balancer puller that came in my useless tool kit for the timing belt job didn't fit either. 3 jaw puller was the trick, just hated to walk away from the job to get to the autoparts store.

make sure you've got the flywheel holding tool in and the butterfly on the cams, as well as the pin on the crank. even with the 3 jaw puller, i had to spin the pulley on the crank in both directions, twisting it back and forth while pulling it off. I did use a heat gun and some PB blaster before i went to the parts store to get the puller. leaving that sit probably helped as much as anything else. probably the hardest part of the job. hang in there!

this has become a pretty big situation. And I noticed the center of the crank has these divots almost like somebody tried this before and did a terrible job. They are on the outside of the crankshaft so pulling shouldn’t be a problem. I have this snap on tool that can go to the inside of the pulley which I feel more comfortable doing because I’m worried about separating the rubber pulling from the outside, but I’m not getting much leverage with it.

 

[madhatter]

you can reverse the teeth on that puller to point in, right? give that a try. i put the puller jaws on the outside of the pulley and finally got mine to budge. not come off, just budge. then went all hulk on it spinning it back and forth to work it off.

 

[HAHAFiST]

you can reverse the teeth on that puller to point in, right? give that a try. i put the puller jaws on the outside of the pulley and finally got mine to budge. not come off, just budge. then went all hulk on it spinning it back and forth to work it off.

I think I’m gonna give that a shot but the space is limited unless I can get creative with dropping the engine lower like others have discussed in this thread. I just worry that it’s gonna require so much force that the rubber might separate the two pieces, but we’ll see fingers crossed otherwise I might look into getting a slide puller just to be a little more safe.

 

[madhatter]

Oh I lowered the hell out of the motor to get clearance. Needed to come down about 4 inches or so. Cheat where necessary.

 

[HAHAFiST]

Oh I lowered the hell out of the motor to get clearance. Needed to come down about 4 inches or so. Cheat where necessary.

Yeah, I think my Jack is currently not in the best location. I might have to install the pass engine mount to kinda re-orient it a bit. I still have the lower engine mount attached as well as a transmission mount obviously

 

[HAHAFiST]

UPDATE:

New crank pulley arrived so picking back up on the install and I seem to have a captive crank position sensor tool which make sure the crank pulley is in correct position with everything else. The manual says you’re supposed to remove this tool before you torque the pulley down. But I’ve seen plenty of people remove this tool after torquing the pulley down. Does anyone have experience with this and should I just give this thing a good pry to get it out? Or should I start over and get a new crank pulley bolt? i’m inclined to think the manual knows better but it seems odd that you would remove the tool before torquing the pulley down If you need to keep the pulley in that position the whole time.

Some how these guys managed to get it out even after torquing the pulley, no problem -

View: https://youtu.be/YYrkPOlx8vg?si=gVTcbVp3xdbz2E34&t=243

 

[madhatter]

heh. yeah... that's a thing. The first toolkit i bought had one that wouldn't come out once the pulley was snugged down. I used the old bolt and just ran it down to snug to make sure the tool would come out before i torqued anything, since that bolt is a 1x use stretch to yield. I couldn't get it out no matter what i tried. Ordered a second one, and it kinda worked, once i added washers to the bolts to raise the tooth that holds the back of the pulley in place, since the crappy 2nd tool was only slightly better than the first one. my advice: get a second tool from not-amazon.

eyeball comparison between the 1st and 2nd tools i bought are noticeably different sizes and shapes.

you should keep the tool in place while torquing. you run the risk of it moving when torquing it if you don't have it in while torquing it, or cranking that 90 degrees or the second 15.