Koda's Zx2.

[koda6966]

Ordered a new water pump from advance, and I am expecting the timing belt tomorrow. I'm going to try to find a torque wrench to borrow from someone, but in the event that I don't I wont be replacing the pulleys. From what I can tell they are in decent shape. The main reason people swap them out on Zx2's is because on pre 2000 models the lower pulley is two pieces, and the inner pulley often gets stuck on the back holding it in place while the main pulley still spins with the shaft, damaging and eventually shredding the belt. Mine is the newer single piece one updated by Ford at the factory. I will do the water pump though, just because I don't want to have to go through all this crap again. I also picked up a valve cover gasket set since I bet mine could use replacing.

 

[koda6966]

Bought a torque wrench, socket set, and a wrench set yesterday. I was expecting to be doing the finishing touches and testing it out today but unfortunately I am hung up on the FIRST STEP which as it turns out is what I believe to be a stripped serpentine tensioner. Apparently Ford in all it's wisdom made this part out of extremely soft metal.

And no, it's not the bolt that's stripped. If that was the case I would just weld to it and be done. It's the innards. I'm trying to get this figured out over on TeamZx2 but they keep telling me I'm going the wrong way and I should go towards the firewall (clockwise) but I AM going towards the firewall (clockwise) so I am uploading a video to my photobucket of my tensioner being a little pissass.

I also bought pulleys and whatnot for the car.

My totals so far on the repair.
Vac lines & gasket - 34.50
Wrenches - 38.87
Pump & pullies - 167.18
Timing belt - 30.00 (no idea where the invoice went. It was around 30)
Socket set- 24.00 (lost my receipt, gotta find that.. damn evolve)
Coolant - 25.25
Torque wrench - 60.00 (same deal as the sockets.. except it's advanceauto)

And probably more that I don't remember. The tools aren't a big deal if I can't get this fixed. I can always use those. I know advance will take back some of the parts but not all of them. The gasket can't be returned (supposedly) because it has been opened. And I can't return the timing belt because I lost the online invoice for it. The reason I'm going through this is because if I don't have it fixed by the end of my month I will be cutting my losses and selling it as is to someone. I will use the money both from my truck and my Zx2 to pay off my loan and buy another car. I was hoping to get it fixed and pay off most of my loan with my truck, then get a new truck in the summer. But looks like that might not happen. Regardless I am going to try as hard as I can to get this sucker on the road.

 

[koda6966]

Kind of sad that I had to make a video for those guys in order to explain myself. I guess I don't have a good way with words or something?

Anyway.. here's that video. Just incase you guys wanna see whats going on.

 

[koda6966]

Unbolted the pulley and got it off that way, the sucker was stripped bad. I spend the last two weeks (a few hours each day I had off from work, so maybe 3 hours a week tops) working on getting the mount off. The last bolt was blocked off by a power steering line and it caused alot of issues but I finally got it! Now I just have the upper idler pulley to do and I'm all set to put it back together.

Unfortunately, the Ranger is leaking approximately twice as much oil as it was when I first started driving it again (typically a quart and a half low sitting overnight, half a quart to 3/4 in a couple hours) so I am looking for another vehicle to get me from point A to point B until I have the car fixed. I called about one today, and I will be checking it out and possibly buying it pending the owner calling me back.

 

[koda6966]

Got everything put back togeather tonight. Starting it tomorrow around 11, wish me luck!

 

[Jay FX4]

Good luck!

I think every ZX2 that ever rolled off the line has had pulley problems.

 

[koda6966]

I read a statistic somewhere that 70% of Zx2 timing belts fail before 100k miles. Mine failed at 92k. Wheel bearings are another problem, but that's an escort issue as well.

By the way, I could barely open my passenger door today and when I did it dropped about 1/4 inch. Time for a new hinge!

 

[koda6966]

No go. It turns over fine, but the serpentine belt walked itself off the pullies. I'm guessing I either had it slightly off one of them, or I screwed up when I installed the crank or tensioner pully and it's off a little bit.

We'll see..

 

[koda6966]

Belt walked itself off. There was a ribbed pully that I didn't even know existed. Just a little tiny bugger. Alls well now.

I decided to use a method I found online to clean off the brakes. Basically you drive it up to 20mph and slowly stop, then 30, then 45, then 55. Some people power it up to 80 after. Then a hard stop from 20mph.

Don't do that. Bad idea. I ended up eating my pads off completely and not only did I have to replace those, but I also had to replace my rotars and most of the brake hardware. It all needed replacing anyway though. I'm doing the drums asap as well, because they can't be all that well off if the pads were down to the bare metal.

Anyway, as of last week @ 94k miles the car has a new tensioner, new timing pullies, new timing belt, new valve cover gasket, new air filter, new front brakes and rotars, and new IAC valve. There's probably new stuff that I forgot to mention. I also redid my stereo wiring (since I canabalized my harness, poorly, for the ranger) and now everything is soldered and heat shrinked. I also wrapped it in electrical tape to help keep it from tangling anything.

 

[Jay FX4]

Belt walked itself off. There was a ribbed pully that I didn't even know existed. Just a little tiny bugger. Alls well now.

What pulley is that?

 

[koda6966]

One of the serpentine belt pullies. If I can find a diagram I'll circle it on paint, but my lunch break is over now so I'll have to get back to you on that.

It's the one above the crank if that helps.

 

[koda6966]

Clocks off in here.

I believe it was #4 or #8. I'd have to go out and look again to be certain. It was easy to miss since I did everything from underneath.

 

[koda6966]

Turned 95k today, time for an oil change! Probably a good idea since I don't remember when my last one was..

I'm also going to pick up some spark plugs, they didn't look like they've ever been changed.

 

[koda6966]

Bumpers are on sale at the u-pull-it. Getting a new one!

 

[koda6966]

The only black zx2 they had was all melted. Only other option was red and I don't want to paint.

Maybe next time. It just sucks because they used to have five, yes five, black zx2's in there.