How to Replace AC Bypass Pulley 1992-2003 Ford Taurus

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In this video we're going to replace the A/C compressor on this 2001 Ford Taurus with a bypass pulley. The A/C system has long since not worked and now the compressor clutch is making a lot of noise. This is the same process for basically a '92 to '06 V6 Taurus. Tools we used on this car are 8, 10 and 13 millimeter sockets and ratchets. You'll need an extension as well, a 15 millimeter wrench and a larger wrench and a flat blade screwdriver and these tools could differ a little bit if your year or model is different.

What's happened is this cars' aged. The A/C has quit working and the compressor has just been sitting there pretty much idle and now the pulley or the clutch has started to go bad and make a lot of noise. What we're going to do is we're going take the A/C compressor out and put in a bypass pulley. Here's our bypass pulley, pretty simple device. All you do is you remove the AC compressor and then you bolt this into its place and that way the belt routs all the same. You just don't have all that noise of a loud, bad compressor or compressor clutch. We're going to disconnect the battery here using an eight millimeter socket. The first thing we're going to do is loosen the serpentine belt. You want a 15 millimeter wrench and right down here is your belt tensioner. Put a 15 millimeter wrench right on the bolt for the belt tensioner.

You can use a bar or if you had a longer ratchet handle or something you can use that. I just use an extra wrench for leverage for set clockwise and then you can remove your belt off your idler pulley and then slowly bring it back with the wrench and now your belt is loose. Your AC compressor on this vehicle is it's a little tough to see down here it's this unit right here and you can see a bolt here and then another bolt right there. Those are the two top bolts. There are also two bolts directly underneath those two which I can't really show you, but they are like I said, directly underneath. Then there's another bolt that you have to remove let's see which is this bolt right here-
Before you remove this bolt you have to make sure that your system is evacuated. On this car it had a leak for so long that there was no pressure in the system, but if your system has any pressure in it, you need to take it to an AC station and have them discharge it. They'll usually do it for 20 or 30 bucks, just have them evacuate the system.
This holds the refrigerant lines on there. This bolt is a 10 millimeter; let me get my socket and ratchet on there. You want to use a regular screwdriver and there are two tabs. You want to pull out on the tab and pull up on this fuse box. That can then just go up and out of the way a little bit. Now you're going to remove your radiator fans and that's pretty easy. See there's an eight millimeter bolt right here. You can see right down there is the plug for your radiator fan. All's you want to do is pry out lightly here and pull that plug off and then you want to pull these pins, you can see here is one of the pins out. Pull these pins out of the fan shroud. Get this up out of the way. Pull this fan up and then it just comes out of the bottom, it comes right out. On this fan I've done the same thing.

I've already loosened this bolt, I've already unplugged it. I'm just going to take that bolt off and then pull it out and then I'm going to slide it over to where this other fan came from. Got to get by all the wiring and slide it up and out. Get those fans out of the way and there's some extra room to work in here. If I can get to my AC compressor mounting bolts, I'm going to do the lower ones first. Put it up here. The compressor's just stuck to the engine. The compressor pretty much just fell out. I got to get these harnesses out of my way now. Here's this compressor right by the exhaust manifold. Bring it out right out here. There's my compressor out. Here's the new bypass pulley. Each bolt you put in, you want to put a bushing on. Let me get this down in there first, it'll be a little easier, it's not as big as the compressor.

Use the same method here. It does install with just three bolts not four like the compressor. You can see down in there. I've got the bolt started; it's very hard to see really. Got the one bolt started there. Two bolts with bushings. Got the bolts and bushings started. I'm going to use a 13 millimeter with an extension and tighten them up. I'm going to get them all pre- just kind of snug first and then I'll tighten them all the way. Looking down in, there's the bypass pulley installed. You can see I put this bolt in again and then I used some plastic ties just to tie this to it to secure it so it doesn't go anywhere. I also put the brackets. I put that bolt through the brackets and tightened it so that those brackets won't move around and none of these harnesses will move around and rub against anything.

Make sure it's on everything down around that bypass pulley that we just put on. Make sure it's down around the crank correctly. Then it goes down underneath our idler pulley like that. Then I hold onto that right there. Put my 15 millimeter wrench on. Put my 15 millimeter wrench down on, pull on the tensioner and then I put it up right here. Just put it on to the alternator; make sure it's pretty well mounted on everything, let the tension back. Look down in, looks like everything's pretty much on the way it should be. Move this over and then it has two feet that have basically a cross pattern on it and if you look down in you can see right there that cross right there that's where one of the feet goes. That cross right down there is where the other one goes.

You put the fans down in and work them back and forth a little bit. You find where they go down in and then that eight millimeter bolt lines up and then tighten up that bolt. Reconnect the electrical harnesses for the fan. Make sure everything's routed correctly. Put the fuse block back into place, reconnect the battery and you should be all set.

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