Review on 🔧 Premium Performance: Gates 38119 DriveAlign Automatic Belt Drive Tensioner by Jay Williams

This is a quality tensioner with an improved design over the original (and problematic) Ford part. Gates states in advance that the mounting screw is not included in the scope of delivery and the original screw must be reused (without the washer). came off the assembly line. If you've ever replaced a tensioner, given the age of trucks with the 7.3 liter Powerstroke engine, there's a 99% certainty that you probably don't have the original mounting bolt anymore. My truck has over 220,000 miles (still running) and I replaced the tensioner. When I did this I used an OEM Motorcraft (Ford) tensioner. It came with a mounting screw so the old one was sent in the bin along with the rest of the original tensioner. Everything was going well and I doubt I ever thought about it. So far. The ORIGINAL BOLT is an M10-1.5 x 95 socket head cap screw with a Torx T50 drive. The replacement bolt on my Motorcraft tensioner is an M10 1.5 x 95 hex flange bolt with a 13mm drive. A quick search revealed that most (if not all) replacement tensioners (which come with a mounting screw) use something other than a socket head screw. NONE of them will work. Due to differences in Gates design, the hex bolt protrudes just far enough to rub against the serpentine belt. This will end badly. As far as I can tell, Ford doesn't have an original screw. Good luck finding an identical replacement. I ended up ordering a regular M10 1.5x95 socket head cap screw with the much more common 8mm hex drive. Aside from the annoying presence of the "odd ball" bolt, it should work just fine. It's something you can't usually find locally, so I'll find out when it arrives at my favorite specialty store in a few days. Again, this is a quality tensioner that I'm sure works well, but one star for Gates. neither the inclusion of a suitable screw, nor a sufficiently clear idea of how critical the "original" is. Definitely buy this tensioner - it's way better than Ford's flawed design. Just make sure you have the required hardware to install it. I hope that the lessons I have learned will help others avoid the same pleasure.