another look at Steeda Underdrive Pulleys

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Steeda Under drive pulley installation on a Mustang GT, Manual transmission with C&L CAI.

You do not need to raise the car. This can be done with the car on the ground. The only "specialized" tools necessary are an impact wrench and a two or three finger puller.

Unbolt and remove the CAI (8mm for the clamps) including the heat shield (10 mm bolt) in order to make room for the power steering and coolant reservoir relocation during the pulley install. The pic below shows how tight everything still is with just the removal of the CAI elbow.

Unbolt the coolant (two 8 mm bolts) and power steering (8mm bolt) reservoirs from the fan shroud. Reposition to the driver’s side of engine bay without disconnecting any of the tubing. You’ll need this room to remove the electric fan (two more 8 mm bolts). Disconnect the grey plug from the fan shroud. Insert a small flat blade screwdriver into the back of the plug to release the locking clip. Pull the fan up to release it from two hooks and then you can maneuver it out of the engine bay. After the fan is out, you can put the coolant tank back in its original location (I held it in place with a zip tie) to reduce stress on the hoses as I did.

This will now give you room for the impact wrench and the 3 finger puller to remove the crank pulley when you get to that point.

Make yourself a diagram of the belt routing since Ford neglected to put one in the engine bay or in the owner’s manual.

Loosen the water pump pulley bolts before removing the belt. This gives you a little more tension needed to prevent the pulley from turning while trying to loosen the bolts but you may still need to hold it the pulley with your other hand.

Use a ½ inch ratchet or breaker bar to move the belt tensioner to remove the belt. At this point, just remove the belt from the alternator pulley (pulley with the “H” on it). You can leave the rest of the belt in position on the remaining pulleys. See the pic below. Notice the red circle around the factory stud and nut retaining the alternator. I’ll address this later.

Remove the water pump pulley bolts and pulley. These pulley bolts will be reused.

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Have the car in 1st gear with the parking break on. Use an 18mm socket and impact wrench to remove the crank pulley. It is said that a breaker bar can be used on manual transmission cars but I tried and could not get enough leverage on the breaker bar to free the bolt. I felt as though if I kept trying with the breaker bar I would hurt either myself or the car if it broke free.

Save this bolt. Both Ford and Steeda have indicated that the stock torque-to-yield-bolt can be reused 3 times. The Steeda kit comes with an “install” bolt. Go ahead and begin to thread in this bolt (3/4 inch hex head) to use as the pressure point for the 3 finger puller. The pic below is one I grabbed off the net somewhere. This person used a 2 finger puller on the inside of the crank pulley. I used a 3 finger puller on the outside of the crank pulley. Also note the red circle around that black bolt head. That is the Steeda replacement bolt I'll talk about later...

A helping hand would be great for positioning the 3 finger puller but it can be done by yourself (as I did) if you use a little bit of patience and avoid caffeine. Slowly use the puller to remove the crank pulley from the crank shaft.

With the crank pulley removed, test fit the water pump pulley. One of the alternator/water pump retaining studs (see red circle in the two previous pictures) may interfere with the larger water pump pulley. If that is the case as it was with mine, remove the nut (1/2 inch) from the stud and then remove the stud (5mm). Replace the stud/nut combo with the ½ inch bolt supplied with the Steeda kit. Then reinstall the new water pump pulley.

Put a dab of high temp sealant/gasket maker into the keyway of the Steeda crank pulley and reinstall it on the crank shaft. Use the Steeda supplied install bolt to get it started but be sure not to bottom out the install bolt. Switch back to the stock bolt (you can add a little more sealer to the back of the bolt's washer) to pull the pulley all the way home and torque to the specs supplied with the Steeda instructions.

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Reroute the belt per the diagram you made. Be sure the belt is properly positioned on all of the pulleys, especially the ribbed pulleys.

Reinstall the electric fan and reconnect the plug to power the fan.

Reinstall the coolant and power steering reservoirs to the fan shroud.

Reinstall the CAI and check all connections.

Have fun.

You can see that there is not much to see when you are done...

Any questions?