For U Solution

Open the hood and raise it up. Prop the hood up with the lock rod to prevent it from falling.

Move to the front passenger side of the Windstar and locate the belt tensioner on the front of the motor. Position a breaker bar and a metric socket onto the bolt that connects the idler pulley to the end of the tensioner. Turn the breaker bar toward the backside of the engine compartment (Counter-clockwise) to loosen the tension from the belt. Slip the belt off of the idler pulley and release the tension from the breaker bar.

Wrap the bungee cord around the belt and hang it to one of the top engine components to prevent it from slipping out of any pulleys.

Loosen and remove the single bolt in the center of the belt tensioner arm, Pull the tensioner off of the engine block. If the tensioner is stuck, use a flat head screwdriver to pry the tensioner off of the engine block.

Secure the new belt tensioner to the front of the engine block with the single bolt. Tighten the bolt with the ratchet and socket.

Turn the new tensioner toward the back side of the engine compartment with the breaker bar and socket. Remove the bungee cord from the belt and slip the belt around the new tensioner pulley. Release the tension from the breaker bar and remove it from the engine compartment.

Crank up the motor to ensure that the new belt tensioner is working properly. The idler pulley should be moving up and down as the belt is traveling around the pulley. This up and down movement is the tensioner keeping the belt properly tensioned at all times. Shut the engine off.

Raise the front of the vehicle with a jack and lower it down onto two jack stands. Check to make sure that the vehicle is firmly supported. Place two wheel chocks behind the rear wheels and set the parking brake.

Rotate the tire in both directions and listen for any grinding or roughness. A faulty bearing will sound rough and feel gritty while youre turning the tire. The tire should spin freely and smoothly; if it rattles or grinds while spinning then the wheel bearing is faulty.

Grip the wheel with two hands, one on top of the wheel and one on the bottom. Rock the tire in and out while feeling for looseness. The tire should be firm and fixed in place; you should not be able to wiggle it all. Any slop or looseness from top-to-bottom indicates a bad wheel bearing.

Lower the vehicle back to the ground and remove the wheel chocks. Drive to an empty street or highway for testing.

Accelerate to 40 MPH and make an abrupt lane change to the left while listening for bearing noise. Accelerate back to 40 MPH and make an abrupt lane change to the right while listening for bearing noise. If the bearing noise increases when turning to the left, then the right side hub bearing is faulty. If the bearing noise increases when turning to the right, then the left side hub bearing is faulty. This is because turning to one side increase the load on the bearing of the opposite side when the weight transfers, exaggerating the bearing symptoms.