bromodragonfly

Hi there,

My buddy owns a 1987 F150 with a 5.8L V8 -- complained his air conditioning wasn't working, so I was going to charge it up, but I noticed the belt running to his compressor is missing.

He said that the previous owner had done some work on the truck, and ended up throwing one of the idler pulleys away.

Does anyone have a belt routing diagram for this vintage? I am looking for the idler pulley that sits on the compressor bracket (as well as any necessary mounting hardware), it looks like all it does is pull a serpentine belt below the radiator hose to prevent any contact.

Much thanks,

bromodragonfly

anyone?

mitchalvin

Does it have the v belts or a serpentine. The v belts should not have any idler pulleys.

bromodragonfly

pretty sure it has a serpentine. The guy said that at one point, it was just one belt that ran everything.

Right now he has the whole AC system bypassed by using two smaller belts, as he doesn't have the AC bypass pulley, and he doesn't have the idler that prevents the one serpentine from rubbing against the radiator hose.

tdcarter72

I took this pic of the routing diagram on my 87 F150 4X4. Hope this helps!!

bromodragonfly

Tdc, thanks for the picture, much appreciated

unfortunately there was a miscommunication between my buddy and I. His truck actually runs the V-belts.

Anyone have a v-belt routing diagram? I contacted the dealership locally, but I'm not sure whether they were either dumb or extremely busy.... they couldn't give me any information on belt lengths, routing, idler pulleys, etc etc. They said that all parts for that year of F150 are discontinued and unavailable.

I'm sure there is an OEM part out there somewhere...

any further help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

mitchalvin

V belts should not use idler pulleys. As for the dealership I would tell them that if they did not want to spend a little time looking for parts for an older vehicle I would never purchase a new on through them as it would eventually become older. On my older ford the ac went from around the crank past the water pump over the ac compressor and the around the power steering pump. This was on a 7.5 though.

bromodragonfly

Strange.... he did confirm it was running V-belts.

I took a look under the hood a couple weeks ago, and I could see what he was talking about.... one belt is looped from crank/alt/air pump, and the other is looped from crank/PS/AC/fan

However, in the place where the belt loops from AC to fan, it comes into contact with the radiator hose. My friend said there was some kind of idler pulley in place before, where the belt actually sat under the pulley, to prevent it from touching the radiator hose.

It looks like this pulley would have been mounted on the compressor mounting bracket.

I'm pretty sure his truck was built with factory AC. can anyone confirm that the v-belt routing I am talking about is correct?

I'm not sure what's going on here.... lol

I haven't seen the idler pulley myself, I'm just going on what the owner is telling me.... which was probably explained to him from the previous owner before that. Who, by the sounds of it, was kind of a pseudo mechanic... liked to take things apart, but couldn't put them back together properly.

Anyway. Thanks for the help so far.

bromodragonfly

Just called the dealership again, dealt with a guy who was a lot more helpful. At least in terms of caring about what I was looking for.

We couldn't find any reference to any sort of idler pulley, however he did have a list of about 15 different V-belts that he said were applicable to that year/model of F150. However, he said he could not cross reference VIN, serial, or anything, to narrow down that listing.

So I've basically come to the conclusion that the previous owner gongshowed something up, maybe he bought a large belt to run AC/fan/PS on the crankshaft, and mounted a random idler pulley to make the belt run below the radiator hose..... and presumably that pulley fell off sometime within the last twenty years LOL.

If anyone can tell me how many V-belts the truck should run, or how they are routed, please let me know. Belt lengths would also be great... I know it's a long shot.

I'm thinking that instead of running 2 V-belts... we should probably be running one or two more... and routing some accessories straight to the crankshaft rather than using one belt for multiple things.

Again, thanks for reading, any further help is appreciated

tHeBeAsT89351

I have a diagram on my '89 5.8L if that will help?